LAURIE: Because he was desperate to keep trying. He’s never been that badly beaten before. I know it was the wrong thing to do but Danny’s been the backbone of my team for eight years and I felt I owed him something. Besides, I doubt whether there’s anyone in the team who could’ve done any better.

GEOFF: I could beat Wilson.

LAURIE: You? You were down the other end of the ground staring into the crowd!

GEOFF: I could beat him.

LAURIE: (angrily) I’m getting pretty bloody fed up with your arrogance, Geoff. You’ve been paid a fortune and you won’t even try; and when I try and talk to you about it you give me a lecture about how petty my life is, and to cap it all off you nonchalantly tell me you could beat Wilson when in the last five weeks you’ve hardly got a kick. I was watching you carefully last week and you couldn’t even outrun Butcher Malone.

GEOFF: I was stoned.

LAURIE: Drunk?

GEOFF: Stoned.

LAURIE: Marihuana?

GEOFF: Hash.

LAURIE: Why?

GEOFF: Because it feels fantastic. Five minutes after you smoke it your head lifts right off your shoulders. I wasn’t looking out into the crowd, incidentally, I was watching a seagull. Not just an ordinary seagull. It was the prince of seagulls, dazzling me with blasts of pure white everytime its wings caught the sun. The roar of the crowd paid homage to its grace and beauty. You ought to try some, Laurie. It alters your whole perspective on things.

LAURIE: Are you stoned now?

GEOFF: (nods) I had a smoke before I came.

LAURIE: Are you addicted?

GEOFF: You don’t get addicted to hash, Laurie. Hey, did you see me fly for the ball in the second quarter? I was so far up over the pack I felt like Achilles chasing the golden orb.

LAURIE: Jesus, Geoff. How am I supposed to deal with this?

GEOFF: Just don’t ask me to do push-ups.

JOCK pokes his head through the right door. He is smiling affably.

JOCK: Sorted things out yet?

GEOFF: Not quite.

JOCK: Would you like me to have a talk to the lad, Laurie? Sometimes a fresh viewpoint can help in these sort of situations.

LAURIE: (irritated) No.

JOCK: Just give me a few minutes, Laurie. I’ve got something I want to say to him.

LAURIE gets up, looking at JOCK in an irritated way, and leaves through the left door.

He’s got it in for you, I’m afraid, Geoff. Not to worry. We’ll sort it out. You did some nice things last week. Not one of your best games but you did some nice things. Glorious mark you took in the second quarter. You just seemed to go up and up.

GEOFF: I felt like Achilles.

JOCK: Who’s he?

GEOFF: A Greek guy who could really jump.