Outside, the fans are cheering the high marks and the low tackles. Inside, the executives are wheeling and dealing, back slapping and back stabbing. From Bruce Beresford, the award winning Director of "Don's Party", "Breaker Morant" and "Puberty Blues", comes David Williamson's "The Club". When a struggling Aussie rules club buys a talented young football player (John Howard) for a record sum, friction immediately develops between the devoted Coach (Jack Thompson), the insecure Club President (Graham Kennedy), the over-the-hill Captain (Harold Hopkins) and the scheming committee-man (Frank Wilson)...It's tough enough on the football field, but in the boardroom it's a battle ground! Set in the golden era of the VFL, when teams played for the jumper not the money, the blood rule didn't exist and "Up There Cazaly" was considered by footy fans to be the new national anthem, David Williamson's "The Club" takes you behind-the-scenes of the power struggles at an Aussie rules club stuck at the bottom of the ladder.

Synopsis

It's tough enough on the Australian Rules Football field, but in the boardroom it's a battle ground! In this club nobody plays by the rules. Outside the fans are cheering the high marks and the low tackles as their team battles towards the premiership. Inside, the executives are wheeling and dealing, back slapping and back stabbing. The club buys a talented young player, Geoff, for a record sum of money and, not surprisingly, the team members do not like their new star. Friction develops immediately, even with the Captain whose own playing days are numbered. Geoff expresses his resentment by lack of effort and indifference. Game after game is lost, until Geoff begins to realise that there is more at stake than just his own career that what matters to others, their pride and even their whole existence, is bound up with the success of the team.