Australian Football.

By "Follower" in the Leader.

In connection with the extraordinary and numerous developments which have characterised field sports in Australia during the present generation there is probably no circumstance more remarkable than the rapid advance made in the popularity of football .as played under the existing Australasian rules, which govern what was until recently known as the Victorian game. Visitors, from the neighbouring colonies have from time to time been struck 4 by the attractive features presented in the Victorian game, as compared with the Association and Rugby Union, a conference of intercolonial delegates was held on the 9th November 1883, when the former's general adoption was agreed to, and a resolution arrived at that the code of rules should from that time be known as the laws of the Australasian game of football. Previous to that date the dissimilarity between the games played in the different Colonies had rendered it compulsory that intercolonial football should be confined to contests between two or three of the leading Victorian clubs and the. few clubs that had adopted the Victorian rules in the other Colonies. It was only natural that some prejudice against severing old associations should exist, and it -was not until footballers in New South Wales were fully satisfied that whilst the Rugby Union game failed to attract the public the Victorian football grounds were, week after week, crowded by enormous multitudes of enthusiastic spectators, that the leading players in the elder Colony wisely determined to adopt the rules which were evidently best . adapted to the public taste. The happy consequence of this federation has been that visits arenow regularly exchanged between the leading clubs of Victoria and South Australia, whilst New South Wales and the tight little island of Tasmania have also been invaded by the knights of the jersey and knickerbocker from this Colony. With a view to completely justifying the application of the word Australasian as applied to the»rules, the late secretary of the V.F.A. (Mr Jas. Boyd) communicated some' time ago with , the secretary of the Otago (N.Z.) Rugby Football Union forwarding copies of the revised rules and suggesting their adoption on the very excellent grounds that they .were ' " universally acknowledged in Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria, ' and that in New South Wales and Queensland they were rapidly superseding the Rugby and British Association rules." Mr Boyd also pointed out that New Zealand would eventually have to adopt the Australasian rules if she had any intention of taking part in intercolonial contests. The letter upon being read " caused considerable laughter," but for what reason it would be difficult to surmise. In the plenitude of its wisdom, however, the Otago Rugby Football Union enjoyed its little laugh over the letter, and passed a resolution " that it be received." One of the vicepresidents, Mr Sleigh, delicately asserted that Mr Boyd's statement that the Victorian game was rapidly superseding the Rugby game "was entirely false," adding that " letters he had received from gentlemen in New South Wales proved quite the contrary.'"' As the letters referred to, however, were not read Mr Sleigh, it may perhaps interest him to compare them with the following extract from an" official letter received this month ' by Mr T. >S. Marshall, the present secretary of the Victorian Association from Mr Ballhausen, who occupies a similar position in Sydney: "We have 15 clubs playing the Australasian game now in New South Wales, and a possibility of one or two more before long." Considering that the game has so recently been adopted in New South Wales, this statement is surety a refutation of Mr Sleigh's assertion that Mr Boyd's declaration " was entirely false." At the aforesaid meeting of the Otago Rugby Union it was also mentioned that there were only eight clubs in the Victorian Union, whilst in the O.R.U. alone there wore no fewer than 20. Five of these have recently been affiliated with the 0.R.U., and from the annual report published a month ago I find that the Union last season consisted of 14 clubs with a total membership of 750. If this comparison of figures was instituted to show that the Rugby Union is more popular than the Australasian game, the idea was a singularly unfortunate one, as the Victorian Association now embraces 15 senior clubs, each with ,an enclosed ground of its own ; whilst the Essendon club alone has a members' roll equal to the sum total of the whole 14 clubs which last season constituted the Otago Rugby Union.

It is - unfortunate, and much to be regretted that New Zealand should be the only Australasian Colony refusing to adopt the rules which are proven to be the mosfcv. popular, and there can be little doubt thaflff either this persistent adherence to the oldfashioned game is unwise, or, if the Rugby Union game is the most popular in Maoriland, then must the good people of Otago be but poor supporter^ of football, as the Union's gross receipts for last season were £211 4s lOd — a sum not within 50 per cent, of the frequent receipts at a single club match in Melbourne played under the Australasian rules. .

The veteran, H. C. A. Harrison, during his recent visit to England, was characteristically energetic in explaining the many attractions of the Australasian game to the leading football authorities in the Old Country, but, of course, never hoped to succeed in inducing them to adopt, in place of their own, a game of which they knew nothing, except from hearsay. Remote, however, as the chance may seem, I am disposed to believe that the Australasian game will be successfully introduced into England, • where it would assuredly become rapidly popular, and for this desirable consummation we must depend upon the enthusiasm of the yearly increasing numbers of the Australians attending the English Universities and public schools, who, T feel sure, have only to treat the British public to a few scientific expositions of the Australasian game in large centres of population to ensure its ultimate popularity."