THE FOOTBALL MATCH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 184, 6 August 1898, Page 4

THE FOOTBALL MATCH.

The great amount of public enthusiasm which, in spite of very disagreeable weather, was.displayed over Ithe football match at Epsom last Saturday, and the interest with which the contest between our local players and the Canterbury team has been looked forward to is sufficient excuse for our giving1 prominence here to what is the local event of the day. Before the majority of our readers see this the match will have been decided either in favour of Auckland or ot Canterbury, so that any remarks we might here venture would be somewhat belated when they appeared; while to prophecy when one's vaticinations will not be read till after the event would be folly unless we were certain of the result. In football, it is always impossible, we might say, to be certain of anything; and though the victory won by our players last week has inspired them with high hopes for this afternoon, it does not necessarily follow that these hopes will be realised. Indeed, our own experience is that it is a dangerous thing' for a team to go into the field too confident in its powers. 'Despise your enemy' says the Portuguese proverb, 'and you will soon be beaten.' It is not our intention, to argue from the results of last Saturday what is likely to happen to-.day at Epsom, but we think that a more general and less invidious deduction may be drawn from the really good stand our men made against Wellington. Even those of us who do not regard with favour football as a game would not have been a little pleased, at the good healthy form shown by the local players on that occasion. As an evidence of the physical stamina and spirit of Aucklanders the match was a valuable object lesson. We have heard it hinted here, and in the South it is more freely contended, that the North, with its semi-tropical climate, cannot hope to produce the same fine physique as the colder parts of New Zealand. Well, that is a contention which it would be very difficult to prove or disprove to the satisfaction ot every one, but we think that the football field affords a pretty fair testing ground. When two representative teams meet it-is to be taken for granted that they represent the best bone and sinew of the district from which they come, and the game of football affords every opportunity for the exercise of those qualities that go to make up a sound, strong physique. It is true that many factors beyond the control of the players have a say in

the ultimate result of the game, but in. the actual play we have a very reliable basis to go on in judging- of the physical merits of the respective players.