Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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Taken from a light-hearted, ironic documentary that probes men’s fascination with sport and balls, this clip shows interviews with well-known sportsmen who at the time of filming played or were involved in soccer, Australian Rules football, rugby or basketball. The men, who include soccer player Francis Awaritefe, 'Mr Football’ Ted Whitten, Rugby League player Brad Mackay, Essendon footballer Derek Kickett and basketballer Andrew Gaze, discuss their views on winning and losing. Footage of sports games is combined with voice-overs taken from the interviews.

Educational value points

• Boys and Balls is a documentary about male professional team sports. Historically, sport has played an important role in shaping Australian identity. It is very much a part of Australian society and the clip highlights that a broad range of men from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds participate. Australia reveres successful sportspeople, particularly men, with many achieving social status and wealth as well as success in community and business endeavours. Despite its small population, Australia has been highly successful in international sporting competitions and is one of the strongest competing nations in the Olympic Games.

• Professional sport in Australia is a male-dominated activity. Women’s sports receive less publicity and media coverage than male-dominated sports such as football, cricket, soccer and basketball, and female players are also given a lower status for their achievements in sport than male players. The Australian women’s netball team, for example, has been ranked as number one in the world but, unlike players in many male professional leagues, most women on the Australian netball team have to be employed in another capacity to support their participation in the sport.

• The competitive aspects of team sports and the importance of winning are emphasised. Edward 'Ted’ James Whitten, regarded by many as one of Australia’s greatest Australian Football League (AFL) players, talks about the importance of winning and instilling a competitive spirit in today’s youth. Some of the men interviewed express the extreme emotions that they experience as a result of winning and losing, and these are reflected in the footage.

• The scene following the footage of the dispirited Victorian AFL team, Carlton, after its Grand Final loss in 1999, shows a young boy modelling his behaviour on that of his heroes and sports commentators, illustrating how sportsmen can act as role models for young boys.

• In the interviews the men display or openly discuss their emotions about their sport. As the Australian male stereotype has it, boys and men can openly express emotion through sport, although not so easily in other situations.

• Filmmaker Sue Thomson’s documentary, with commentary by Greig Pickhaver and John Doyle (better known as 'Roy’ and 'HG’), is an affectionate and humorous deconstruction of men’s fascination with sport. Thomson has also directed The Fifth Set: Australia and the Davis Cup (2000) and The Last Great Amateurs (2004), a film that follows the Melbourne Phoenix Netball Club for a season.

Francis Awaritefe is interviewed standing in the tunnel of a stadium with a player practising ball skills on the field behind him.

Francis Awaritefe I think the most exciting thing that happens, really, is when you win and when you score goals during a soccer game, because that’s a highlight of the game and generally you don’t get a lot of goals in soccer matches so when you do score a goal, yeah, that’s a big high.

Ted Whitten is interviewed in a room with the walls filled with images of sporting occasions.

Ted Whitten I mean, you go into a grand final and you see the victors walking off the ground, they do the lap of honour – that’s important to them. Then you see the people who have been beaten. They’re sitting within a group of players. They’re down. They’re downhearted. They’re crying and they’re sorry because they’ve been beaten. That’s how important winning is and that’s what young players, when they go into more senior ranks, should be taught from their schooling days.

Two school aged boys in football colours are running around and falling down on a field.

Boy (cries) I’m going to cheer for the Carlton players, and we can’t believe it! Oh, tragedy for Carlton!
Brad Mackay is interviewed crouching on a field in a football stadium, he is wearing a St George.

Brad Mackay I don’t cry much. Tears come to my eyes. Yeah, I do – of course. You know, you get into it emotionally as well as physically, and at the end of the game whether you’ve won or you might have lost, you know, it’s very emotional. I don’t hold any shame for being emotional after the game, because a lot of players do. I have cried, yeah, I’ll admit it.
Derek Kickett is interviewed sitting on a press bench in a gymnasium he is wearing casual attire. There are dumb-bells and a football around him.

Derek Kickett Uh…missing out on the grand final was very disappointing. That was my dream, I think, when I was young, and I think it’s every other league player’s dream to play, you know, play in a premiership side, especially in the top, you know, top competition in Australia, which is the VFL/AFL football, and to miss out on that is – it’s ah, hard to describe, but, um, I suppose you’ve just got to worry about next year.

Andrew Gaze, dressed in Perth Tigers colours, and his father Lindsay Gaze, in shirt pants and tie, are interviewed in a studio lit basketball stadium both of them are holding basketballs. There is footage of the final moments of the game mentioned in the interview.

Andrew Gaze Winning in Perth and winning the grand final is something that is very hard to explain what it felt like. It wasn’t until afterwards, and someone sort of said to me to play a sport at the highest level possible and to share a moment like that with your father is so unique, but at the time, it wasn’t until after the event that I realised that it was something perhaps a little bit more special than what other people get to do.

Lindsay Gaze It’s a euphoric time. I mean, you could have run a knife through me at that time and I wouldn’t have felt it. But generally I think back now and try to evaluate my emotions at the time. What comes to mind most is one of incredible relief.