The Club (Australian TV series)

The Club was an Australian reality television show about an Australian rules football sporting side, the Hammerheads, which was screened on the Seven Network in 2002 for one series. It was seen as a way for Seven to stay involved in football after losing the broadcast rights to the Australian Football League after the 2001 season.

The show featured a handpicked team of amateur footballers coached by former VFL/AFL legend David Rhys-Jones which played against various Victorian football sides from the Western Region Football League second division, following the trials and tribulations of its players.

Unlike normal clubs, the home audience were able to influence who was selected in the team each week by voting to keep their favourite players in the side. Viewers also got to vote on many of the club's other key aspects including its name, coach, captain and song.

The show was considered trailblazing and generated a cult following, with several crowds at games featuring the Hammerheads pushing 5,000 spectators and many claiming the Hammerheads as their second favourite sporting team. After finishing the regular season in third position, the Hammerheads went on to win the Grand Final and claim the flag in their first – and only – season.

Dale Brown

Dale Brown (born November 2, 1956) is an American writer and aviator known for aviation techno-thriller novels. Thirteen of his books have attained a New York Times Best Seller list.

Biography

Brown was born in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European History, and later received a commission in the United States Air Force in 1978.

A navigator-bombardier, now known as a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) in the B-52 Stratofortress G-model long-range heavy bomber and the FB-111A Aardvark medium range fighter-bomber, he is the recipient of several military decorations and awards, including the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Combat Crew Award, and the Marksmanship ribbon. He rose to the rank of Captain, and has 2,500 hours of flight time in B-52s. He is also a Life Member of the Air Force Association and the U.S. Naval Institute.

Brown's first paid writing was a review of Fort Apocalypse for Compute!'s Gazette. Never seeing combat before leaving the Air Force in 1986, he wrote his first book, Flight of the Old Dog. His novels are published in eleven languages and distributed to over seventy countries. He published 11 bestsellers in 11 years.