Different Ball Game DAMIAN CALLINAN ON SPORT, COMMUNITY AND THE MERGER
After years of being brought to life as part of Damian Callinan’s live stage show, the fictional town of Bodgy Creek has hit the big screen in Mark Grentell’s The Merger (2018).
In the tradition of The Castle (Rob Sitch, 1997), the film is iconically Australian but carries a broader message. With the rural town devastated by the closure of its main employer, a timber mill, the local football club is facing the choice between a merger or extinction. Enter past club champion turned community outcast Troy Carrington (Callinan). It was Troy’s environmental protesting that led to the closure of the mill, so he suggests recruiting refugees from the local resettlement program to help bolster player numbers and draw extra funding to help save the club.
I speak to Callinan about The Merger’s transition from stage to screen, Australia’s rural landscape, and how footy and grief might just be the country’s two greatest unifiers.
Kylie Maslen: How did the concept for The Merger come about?
Damian Callinan: The real genesis started with the creation of Troy as a character, which goes all the way back to 1999. I came up with the idea for him to be a character for […] a valedictory night for a fake Catholic school. In the great tradition of Roman Catholic schools in particular, the speaker had to be a
