OBSERVER: Ballad of Dan O’Malley
Paul Mitchell’s The Ballad of Dan O’Malley: A Football Tragedy is based on the actual events surrounding the Melbourne Demons tanking scandal.
In 2009, allegations erupted that the Demons intentionally lost matches to secure top draft picks for the club. The club was eventually hit with sanctions and a hefty penalty for bringing the game into disrepute.
Coach Dean Bailey took the fall and was banned for the first 16 rounds of the 2013 season.
Appointed coach of the Central Leopards, Dan O’Malley (Justin Bell) dreams big and pledges his best.
O’Malley fires up his young players, such as promising forward Chad (Julian Weeks).
The team’s ragtag form starts to turn around, from wooden spooners to winners. What O’Malley doesn’t know is that the club is at its lowest point financially.
Despite O’Malley’s success in turning around the Leopard’s fortunes, he comes under pressure from the club’s crooked administrator, Simon (Gregory Caine), to adopt some dodgy methods to secure the team’s future draft picks.
Slow pacing on opening night will hopefully pick up as the season progresses.
Great casting makes this paper-thin retelling of the Demon’s tragic saga work.
Bell is terrific as the much-put-upon O’Malley, trying his utmost for his players but caught in a web of politics and powerful interests.
Weeks is also excellent as the wide-eyed young player Chad who begins to realise that the love of the game means nothing to those in charge of it.
As villains, Nick Mitchell’s “whatever-it-takes” Barclay and Caine’s slimy Simon do their best to undermine O’Malley’s success.
Caught in the maelstrom of backroom secrets and dealmaking, O’Malley makes a tragic decision to keep his job.
Performed at The Explosives Factory, Theatre Works, St Kilda, directed by Theresa Borg.
Review by Kathryn Keeble
Pictured: Nick Mitchell, Justin Bell and Julian Weeks in The Ballad of Dan O’Malley.
Photo: Gavin D Andrew.