Footy Legends

Review by Mark Bennett

While some critics have worked themselves into a froth over yawn-fest Australian dramas like Somersault and Look Both Ways in recent years, I think it’s comedy where the local industry has succeeded best. Kicking off with The Castle (10 years old this year!), comedies such as Crackerjack, Fat Pizza, Bad Eggs and even The Nugget have ranged somewhere between solid and good.

So as a lifelong fan of rugby league, it pains me to say ‘Footy Legends’ doesn’t deserve to play in the same team as the aforementioned titles.

Luc Vu (Anh Do) is an Asian-Australian who has grown up in the less than affluent Sydney suburb of Yagoona (incidentally, my first girlfriend lived in Yagoona so it’s a place I know a bit about). Luc has been out of work for nearly six months since the factory where he worked went bust. Every advertised job seems to require a degree or skill set Luc doesn’t possess, but he has still managed to eke out a decent existence for himself and his sister Anne (Lisa Saggers), to whom he has been guardian since their mother died. In his spare time, he gets together with his ragtag high school mates and throws the footy around.

But when he is denied a dole cheque for allegedly not applying for jobs, Luc’s fragile financial balancing-act collapses. Anne’s unpaid school fees spark an investigation by a Department of Community Services officer (Claudia Karvan) and Luc is faced with an ultimatum: get a paying job or have his sister put in a foster home.

Luc’s one undeniable talent is playing halfback in rugby league, so together with his friends (who were a promising team playing for Yagoona High School) he forms the Yagoona Schooners and they enter the inaugural Holden Cup – first prize being a brand new ute and a modelling contract for Lowes (if there’s been a recent film with less subtle product placement I don’t know what it is).

They fight their way to the final, where they face the well-to-do Double Bay side coached by the unscrupulous Billy Major (Peter Phelps), who has hired half a dozen of the game’s all-time greats to take the field.

Footy Legends is like a cake with all the right ingredients that somehow fails to rise. A flat, idealised suburban fairytale, it’s trapped in-goal from the kick-off and just can’t get into the field of play despite its big heart. Amateurish acting and an almost non-existent score don’t help, but it’s the script that should be penalised, building the characters well enough but generating next to no laughs or dramatic tension. (The inclusion of celebrity cameos, however, frequently generates cringe-worthy moments.) When it comes to screenwriting, the Do family is no Working Dog or Tony Martin.

The actors deserve kudos for doing their own stunts (all the tackles appear to be real) and Saggers, a first-timer, shows real promise. But frankly after 40 or 50 minutes I was looking at my watch and wishing the movie would hurry along to its predictable climax. If Footy Legends were a footy team, it’d consist of a bunch of likable but hapless blokes who in spite of their best efforts are destined to get the wooden spoon.

1.5 out of 5

Footy Legends
Australian release: 3rd August, 2006
Cast: Anh Do, Matthew Johns, Peter Phelps, Claudia Karvan, Angus Sampson
Director: Khoa Do
Website: Click here.