The Games · Season 2
[Bryan is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
He’s got a very soft side, John. You don’t see it very often but it’s there. I remember we were once in Milan and we were sitting out on this fifteenth-century balcony. We were drinking a local liqueur called ‘Mist of Heaven’ and all of a sudden John just started to weep. I don’t think he was unhappy. I mean, we’d drunk about three bottles of the stuff and the weather was very beautiful and we were just sitting out there looking over the harbour.
[John is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
Well, I’ve always responded pretty well to a challenge. I can remember when I was a kid once playing cricket with my cousins on the lawn at the back of my grandmother’s place and somebody said, ‘I bet you can’t put a ball on the roof of that big tool shed at the bottom of the garden’, and I can still remember thinking, "You reckon I can’t do that, don’t you?"
[Off-camera] And could you do it?
No. It was too far away.
[Bryan is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
Yes, he had some disappointments, but John could have been a world-class runner. No doubt about that. He wasn’t. But he could have been.
[Voice-over] Further revelations followed a few months later, and in November of that year, fifteen ONAN committee members were cashiered when they were found to have received an estimated $4 million worth of jewellery from a man who gave his name as Mr Tabernacle Choir.
[John is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
I felt at this stage Allan Ronaldson still deserved a chance to clear his name. There was still some doubt. Don’t forget that Allan had worked very, very hard for a very, very long time for the movement. I thought that there was still a chance, in my mind, that all of this could turn out to have been a mistake.
[Off-camera] Did you ever see him with a yacht?
No, categorically, I never once saw Allan with a yacht. I did see him with a light aircraft once, at a meeting.
[Off-camera] And where did he get that from?
He told me he’d won that in a card game.
Allan Ronaldson got a very fair hearing. I think if you ask, even Allan Ronaldson will say he got a very fair hearing over this matter.
[Cut to Allan Ronaldson, interviewed in an airport lounge]:
[Laughing] No, he didn’t actually say that, did he?
[John is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
[Off-camera] How do you feel when you get personal criticism? Does it hurt?
Personal criticism? I don’t pay much attention to personal criticism, to be honest. Who said something?
[Off-camera] Well, it has been said that you’re arrogant, for example, hasn’t it?
Well what complete barking moron said that?
[Bryan is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
Arrogant? John? No. Arrogant? No, not exactly.
[Gina is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
John? Arrogant? No, [Thinking about it] no... [Less convincingly] no...
[John is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
Yes, I have regrets, I suppose. I’d like, for example, to be able to get out of the office a little bit more and perhaps spend some time with some of the charity organisations that I’m involved with.
[Off-camera] And which ones are they?
Oh, Bicycles for the Deaf, African Dog Hospital, something at Thredbo. American Express. Countless others.
[John is being interviewed by Liz Jackson]:
[Off-camera] It’s been said that ONAN is undemocratic, hasn’t it? That it is a closed, secretive, elite group.
Yes, but only by riffraff.
Tell them Daddy’s in Europe. You haven’t seen Daddy for a bit. You think he’s in Switzerland.
Will I say you’re with Auntie Fahey and Aunty Linda?
No, no, no, no. Don’t say I’m with Aunty anybody. Don’t say I’m with Aunty anybody. You haven’t seen me for a bit. You know, I’ll be back in six weeks.
Hey Dad, there’s a guy out there with a camera.
Well, go out there and tell him you’re a policeman and explain to him that he’s in breach of regulations and if he’s not off the property in one minute you’re going to call the police.
If I’m a policeman, haven’t we already called the police?
Well tell them you’re going to call more police. [Shouting] Bigger ones!
I had a proposal for the naming rights to the mascots this morning.
Millie, Olly and Syd?
Uh-huh.
Any good?
Not bad if you don’t mind them being called Big Mac, Fordie and Microsofty
In this very room, we’ve probably got a microcosm of Australia’s fabulous cultural diversity. [To Asian-looking staff member] Where, for example, do you come from?
Who, me? Collaroy.
No, I mean where are your parents from?
Oh, they’re from Petersham.
What about your grandparents, then? Where are your grandparents from?
Well, they had a market garden up in Maitland.
Yes, well, good on them. My point is the cultural diversity. I mean, we all come from somewhere. In my own case, for example, probably principally Ireland and Scotland in the 1860s. What about you?
Oh, well, they came up from Melbourne in about 1855.
Good on them.
From the Victorian goldfields.
Yes, very good. Yes, well, the cultural point is probably well made.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The Games pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
