TED: We shouldn’t be fighting like this, Laurie. It’s all so ironic. I’ve always been one of your greatest admirers. Do you remember the day you played your first game?

LAURIE: Of course.

TED: You’d just turned seventeen three days before. Or was it eighteen?

LAURIE: Seventeen.

TED: There was a real sense of occasion and anticipation right around the ground. We all knew already that you weren’t just another recruit. We all knew we were going to see the first game of a great new champion and I don’t think anyone was disappointed. Do you remember your first kick?

LAURIE: Not all that well. I know I booted a goal, but there was so much adrenalin pumping through me in the first half, that when I came off the field I could hardly remember a thing.

TED: It was magic, Laurie. It really was. I was only fourteen at the time but I can still see it as clearly as if it was a video replay. You read the play and started sprinting for the goal, picked up a long low pass from Wally Baker, steadied, did a beautiful blind turn around Stan Jackson, and slammed it through the centre. I’ve seen every game we’ve played since I was six and I remember that one better than most.

LAURIE: Yes, it was a good game. I settled down in the second half and everyone seemed pretty pleased when I ran off the ground.

TED: Pleased? They went bloody wild. Do you know that right up until the time I was twelve I used to cry every time we lost. If we won I went home and booted a football around our back yard in the dark trying to remember every kick of the match and pretending I was in the side. Hah! By the time I was sixteen I could barely hold my place in the school thirds.

LAURIE: We’ve all got different talents.

TED: I would like to put harmonious somewhere in that press statement, Laurie.

LAURIE: You’re a trier, aren’t you?

TED: It would make me feel a lot better.

LAURIE: Say we’ve had a long talk and have resolved our differences. That’s as far as I’ll go.

JOCK comes in the left door.

JOCK: I got on to Geoff and he’s on his way in.

TED: You’re a hard man, Laurie. I’ll write it out and give it to Gerry.

LAURIE: I want to check it before it’s released.

TED: Don’t worry. I won’t slip anything in.

TED leaves through the right door.

JOCK: Geoff’s on his way in.

LAURIE: Ted tells me that you were the one who held out for him.

JOCK: Yeah, I did. He is good, Laurie. He’s got so much talent he’s a bloody freak. He just needs to be motivated properly.

LAURIE: What’s this I hear about Parker resigning?