LAURIE: I’ll deal with strategy, Parker.

TED: The team hasn’t got any to deal with.

GERRY: Stop it, will you? All of you.

DANNY: (upset, angry) Everyone gets beaten once in a while, Parker. Wilson’s a hell of a good footballer.

TED: Just remember what I said, Rowe. When you decide to go interstate and make some money you’ll need our signature.

DANNY looks ready to smash TED. LAURIE calms him.

JOCK: Don’t stretch a point, Ted.

TED: They threaten us. Why can’t we threaten them?

DANNY: (flaring) Wilson’s one of the best players to take the field since the war, Parker. It’s easy for you and your business mates to sit up there and pour shit on me from behind the glass in your air-conditioned bar. Wilson would’ve beaten anyone in the country on the day. He was firing. No one could’ve stopped him.

LAURIE: You played a good game, Danny. Don’t let him needle you.

DANNY: I’ve got twenty-five kicks a match for ten years. Game in, game out, and the first time I have a bad day he’s onto me. What right have you got to sit in judgement on me, you fat turd? Get back to your pie factory.

JOCK: That’s enough, Danny. Come on. You’ve given the Club great service and only a fool’d deny it.

TED: It’s all right for him to call me a drunk, but I’m not allowed to tell him he played a bad game.

LAURIE: Shut up, Ted, or I’ll thump you.

GERRY: Yes. For Christ’s sake could we make a start on the real business of the evening? The Committee’s meeting in under an hour and a half and we’ve got to have this whole thing resolved. Danny. Could you wait outside? You’ve left us in no doubt about the players’ position. It will be taken into account.

DANNY: I’m not leaving until I hear something definite. The players want to be notified.

GERRY: All right. Play some pool downstairs. As soon as anything happens I’ll let you know.

DANNY moves to the left door, but just as he opens it he turns to fire a last salvo.

DANNY: You watch the way you talk to me in future, Parker, or you’ll end up getting flattened.

DANNY leaves.

TED: That’s lovely. A player threatens the Club President with physical violence and nobody says a word.

JOCK: Ah shut up! You’re lucky he didn’t flatten you. You’ve got to be bloody tactful when a player’s getting on in years, Ted. It’s a hell of a shock to the system when a player you could have matched when you were younger turns round and takes you apart. I got angry about the strike stuff too, but you’ve got to be tactful about things like that. Tubby Robbins took me apart in the ’39 Grand Final and when I got home Rosemary said, “I think you met your match today,” and I thumped her one. She apologised later but by that time the damage was done.