By Charlene Gatt
HE has the obligatory long white hair and beard and writes spells in Gaelic, but even the Wizard of Footscray can’t make the Western Bulldogs win a flag.
Wizard Dafydd, or David Greagg to us regular mortals, has been a wizard since the mid-’80s, when he was given his first wizard staff from the then-Wizard of New Zealand.
Star visited Wizard Dafydd last week in his Footscray home, where he was decked out in full wizard’s robes and talking magic.
“People want there to be magic,” he said. “I remember when I was a kid, seeing all these people doing stuff that they didn’t really want to do but they thought it was expected of them. That doesn’t interest me. Everyone thought I was mad … (but) it’s amazing how people will eventually fall in and come to treat it as normal.”
The wizard habitually goes to the council’s chambers in his wizard’s robes to negotiate community issues.
One of the wizard’s first appearances was on the Channel 2 news, where he stood on the steps of parliament trying to defy the ghost of Isaac Newton and repeal the law of gravity.
He has also performed a “bizarre spell” on the floor of the Reserve Bank of Australia to restore the Queen’s profile on Australia’s five-dollar note and played a small part in the resurgence of Seddon Village when the Commonwealth Bank closed its Seddon branch.
But even he admits that his spells are largely trial and error.
“I aim for an 80 per cent success rate. Some spells don’t work. Preliminary final 1997, classic example. We wanted it so badly that I really went out on a limb and said the Dogs were going to win the flag that year, did a spell. It was so close! But I had to walk the streets in sackcloth and ashes the next day.
“Spells to win games are very dodgy. When we do eventually win the flag, we will know there was no spiritual intervention at all. I’ve learnt my lesson.”
His alter ego, David Greagg, is a former maths and science teacher who has written the odd book and owns a motorbike. Wizard Dafydd has put his touch on the motorbike helmet by adding a small wizard’s hat.
“I have had so much fun with this. It’s brilliant. I’ll never die wondering,” he said.
