A FOOTBALL CURSE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 15

A FOOTBALL CURSE

"COMPETITION MAD"

BETTER SPIRIT WAITED

.■"■ls Rugby football.iri Now Zealand-being played in the triie spirit .of. the1 .game? The, question-was raised by a speaker, at the annual meeting oi delegates to .the Wellington Rugby Union kst night when i a matter affecting the local; senior grade competition's -was /tinder ' discussion. ■. "I strongly think our competition system is getting away from the proper.spirit of the game.," said Mr. G. H. .Weir,- of., the Wellington- Football Club. ■ "Too much penalty'is paid for losing a .match.. Everything in this country is competition.;. We are competition mad; This should not be. AYe have not got the proper Rugby spirit betveen: clubs: We should not have to go out and meet bur Union teams in. a game of life and death as we had to" do last year." He referred to the fact that Mr. J Baxter, the-manager of' the 'British team in New Zealand last year, had expressed the opinion that New Zealanders took their, football too seriously. .There was no'doubt that the game1 was taken seriously, and one regrettable indication of this. \\s!b. the.increasing number ot accide"The,curse of.football in New Zealand, to my mind, is the, presentation of cups, remarked Dr.; P. F.M'Evedy. "Too much importance is placed upon trophies. Take away, the cups and. shields and; I thmk footballI'will' be ,the; better for it. Di. M'Evedy explained how the matches were arranged and played in England, and. Pointed out .that, tho, only weakness was in the fact that the .clubs took the "gates." There was-a different spirit about football in England. It did not matter whether the game .was won or lost. The question, was: Did frou enjoy the game? Or,-was" it a, decent ■ game.' They did not' take any notice' of a lick■inß there. They '. went out on ;to the ■fields for healthy exercise, i' ••.'. „ Mv '.]\['Evedy : suggested that club piuejals here had-a grave duty in controlling the spirit of the clubs. They should 'see to it that their members; had' the. true. IKugby spirit, and that would go.a long [way towards enabling the teams to go out j for'clean exercise and clean i without unnecessary risk.. He was. of opinion that far too much was left to_ the rel'eree on the playing field. The British team which visited New Zealand last'season had provided a wonderful example of the type,of game that was wanted, and that example should be followed. "By doing so we would have a cleaner and better soirit in football than we have today," h» added.;- "Keep the game, open, make il spectacular, and make it a much nicer and cleaner game to play. Play it M the spiriib of $he game."