Lucas is having a hard time accepting the fact that Tony's acting as if Geoff is Summer Bay's answer to Golden Balls, and angelic Annie is doing little to help matters. It's at an impromptu reading lesson with Lucas that she finds him reminiscing about his rugby-playing days, and she just can't resist pointing out that he's not as good as Geoff: "Your dad told him he was the most natural player that he's ever seen. He said that he was more excited about coaching Geoff than Geoff was about playing... and that's a lot." Disguising his bitterness, Luc makes his excuses for ending Annie's tutoring early, before pulling on his rugby boots and heading down to the coaching session to try to outdo his nemesis. Lucas manages to floor Geoff with a tackle, but it does little to shake him up. "I hope that's not your best shot," he sneers. To add insult to injury (literally), Geoff later gets his own back with something much more impressive, leaving a red-faced Lucas to hobble home. Still, at the very least, it's enough to make Tony realise that he and his son are going to have to find a new way to spend time together.Life beginsMeanwhile, it's the day of Alf's follow-up appointment with an eye specialist, and Brad – who's on his way to a meeting with his solicitor – drops him off at Yabbi Creek to pick up his test results. But Alf seemingly as other ideas, as Ric later finds out when he gets a call asking why his grandfather failed to show up for his appointment. Alf's multitude of excuses - varying from the classic "I didn't want to know the results", to the somewhat more unique argument that the waiting room was too claustrophobic – fail to make their mark on Ric, who whisks him straight back to the Creek to get the matter sorted out once and for all. They get there just in time to find out from the doctor, who's on his way home, that although Alf has early-stage glaucoma, the more pressing problem is cataracts; with an operation, he won't yet have to put his driving days behind him – much to everyone's relief.

Truth or dare

When Brad returns from Yabbi Creek, he not only brings back Ric's appointment-dodging grandfather but also a rather large helping of bad news.

It turns out that Naomi has changed her story. She's now claiming that she told Brad everything about her and Lucas straight from the start, and the Education Department have agreed to letting her revise her statement.

Sally's words of reassurance do little to help matters. "There are no facts, Sal," Brad argues. "In the end it's gonna come down to her word against mine." And in Brad’s opinion, the best way to deal with the situation is to speak to Naomi in person.

Why would she do this? "Because I'm desperate; because I'm on suspension. I can't get a job," she offers. Despite his best attempts to convince her to tell the truth, reminding her that honesty would, of course, look better on record, Naomi's not about to give in.

In fact, she is about to make matters so much worse. "Records don't always tell the whole story, do they Brad?" she responds, before revealing that, after a little research, she's managed to find out why he left his former teaching post: for possession of marijuana.

"Either you back up my new version of events, or I'll tell the Department why you left your school in the West. The choice is yours." Needless to say, when Brad returns home to Sally, her assurances that he has nothing to worry about seem a little off the mark.

Tagged in