FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 206, 29 August 1916, Page 8

FOOTBALL.

RXJQBT. THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. THE BY-LAW QUESTION. Although no official information is available, it is understood that a meeting of the committee of the Secondary Schools Association was held on Saturday ~when the protest of the Sacred Heart College against Grammar School in the recent match was further discussed, and the following decision arrived at: — "That the Secondary Schools Rugby Union, having the decision of the Auckland Rugby Union on the matter under protest, forward a copy of the same to ths Grammar School, notifying them that they were guilty of a technical breach of the" law, and that the result of the match stands as recorded." On being seen on the anattcr, the chairman of the Association, Mr. OSliaughnessy, stated that the finding as above was substantially correct, and on being pressed for a reason, said that it was a case of the unwritten law, but further than that he was not prepared to state anything for publication. The question is one of vital interest to the secondary schools association, which play under their own by-laws, for the clause under which Sacred Heart lodged their objection has twice been before the committee of the Auckland Rufjby Union, which has in each case ruled that the Grammar School were in the wrong. To give tlie history of the affair from the beginning, it may be stated that in connection with the match Sacred Heart tried to arrange for a postponement on the ground that two of their best players were unable to get to town owing to the floods. This, however, could not be arranged, and the match proceeded, with the result that Grammar School won by a good margin of points. After tbe game it transpired that Rewhiti and Taylor, two of the B team, had been included in the A taam, and consequently the by-law on tho question was transgressed. Sacred Heart then protested against their opponents playing Rewhiti, and the Rugby Union were asked to give a ruling on the point at issue, the committee of the Secondary Schools Association being unable to agree. The committee ruled that Grammar School's action was illegal, and it then went back to the Association. Grammar School then raised the point that Rewhiti had only played two games, and on this ground the protest was dismissed. Sacred Heart then appealed, and the matter was again sent to the union, both the schools concerned being represented. The union confirmed their previous ruling, adding their reason for so doing, and the Association then met on Saturday, arriving at the decision as above. On this occasion the Grammar School delegate admitted Rewhiti's having played three games for each of the A and B teams, so, strictly speaking, under the Association by-laws he was really ineligible for both teams.

As far as the Sacred Heart College is concerned, they still have the right of appeal to the Rugby Union; but, from what can be gathered, there _> not much likelihood of this step being taken. Their own object in protesting was to blave the chance of meeting their opponents at full strength, and not with any idea of winning the championship through a breach of the rules. Grammar School, it is stated, is not prepared to grant a replay, and so the matter ends. The ruling of the Secondary Schools Association establishes a dangerous precedent, for while sentiment, etc., is an' excellent tiling, especially in school con-i tests, when a question of by-laws is j raised, a decision should be given on the by-law as it stands. No one ie going to, maintain that Grammar School acted in wilful defiance of the by-laws, for, as they have pointed out, the'clause did not appear in the Rugby Union Annual, and therefore they were not aware of its existence. This, however, is not the fault of their opponents, and therefore their claims for a replay is perfectly justifiable and fair. Had they so wished they could have claimed a straight-out win under the by-law in question, and would have been quite within their right, so that in only asking for a replay, they can hardly be accused of unsportsmanlike conduct. With Sacred Heart anxious for a "replay, a rneetin"between the two teams for* some charftable object would be one of the events of !the season. The match on Saturday between the Ellerslie and Parnell cadets was certainly exciting, for both sides were allout all the time, and were so evcnlv matched that the issue was in doubt till the very end. but it was not a scientific game they played. Individual cleverness there was a-plenty on both sides, but there was no well-directed combination, land it was virtually two teams of "spoilers" .that faced each other, every man fast, fit, and playing up to the ', whistle all the time. Naturally, in such a style of play there was plenty of incident and action to give the barrackers talking-points, and this section of the population took full advantage of the opportunities, keeping up an incessant din, what time the players dribbled, bumped, tackled, kicked, and dashed with varying success. The game had all the snappy action of a. bantamweight boxing match, and much individual cleverness, but it was not the best class of football, and on the play Parnell, though showing the more steadiness, might just as easily have lost as won. INTER-COLLEGIATE TOURNAMENT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. The inter-college football tournament concluded to-day with the match between Wellington College and Christ's College. Tlie former won by 10 points to 18 after an exciting game. The first spell ended in favour of Christ's College by 18 points to 0; then Wellington ran over their opponents and scored a try and- a goal jost on time. NORTHERN UNION. DOMESTIC AFFAIRS." There have been the usual end-of-the-season discussions on domestic problems at the last two or three meetings of the Auckland Rugby League, and this very necessary -process in the regulation of the ruling body has been of considerable utility. The problem of striking a happy line between the centralisation of supreme authority in the executive of a sporting body and the judicious delegation of certain powers —a process of decentralisation —to subsidiary bodies will always be a thorny one, but no good will result, from burking discussion on points as they arise. In the Auckland Rugby League there are three subsidiary representative groups, -winch all naturally, desire to be more than men pint.-.

mental appendages of the League, discharging much of the trying and troublesome detailed work and receiving no status ibeyond deliberative competency. There is the Junior Advisory Board, supervising the whole of the work relating to the junior competitions, there are the various clubs representive of the players themselves, which naturally expect to receive recognition and con-, sideration, and thirdly there is the Referees' Association, engaged in the invaluable work of endeavouring to coordinate rulings and interpretations, and generally to raise the standard of ' refereeing. 1 THE JUNIOR ADVTSORY BOARD. In tho main the clubs enjoy the best modicum of representation, for the cxci cutive of the League ia largely comprised of the representatives of the clubs, so that the players atways have the | machinery of redTess at their disposal if , they possess grievances. In regard to the Junior Advisory Board, however, the position is not co satisfactory, as | demonstrated by the fact that recently a deputation of the members of the Board waited upon the League to ask* that their powers should tie more precisely defined. The complaints then put forward were in the main directed to the inadequacy of control exercised by the Board, which Tesulted in the weakening of discipline and the refusal of the players to recognise the Board as the authority in charge of the junior branch of the gallic." The explanation given by the chairman tliat the Board actually possessed far greater power than it exercised went a long way towards clearing up misunderstandings, but if it is true that tho Board has been deceived by precedent, it seems a pity that steps were not taken long 'before this to enlighten it with Tcgard to the extent of the powers it possessed. Even so. the complaints of the Board do not seem to have been completely replied to. There can be no doubt that recommendations of the Board, which has a much closer insight into matters affecting junior conduct than the executive of the League can possibly possess, have frequently been overridden by the Management Committee, after some .painfully parochial discussion started by club delegates "barracking" for their own particular players. Sometimes decisions of the Board have been reversed, not because of legal flaw in the decision of the Advisory Board, or because of undue severity of sentence, but merely on a question of fact. Apart altogether from the question of whether the Board should be in a position to pronounce sentence forthwith, it appears to this writer that the principle of re-discussing the decisions of the oody placed in charge of the junioT players is unsound and calculated to weaken discipline. If it is necessary for the Management Committee formally to endorse the report of the Junior Advisory Board, there should be no discussion on decisions on misconduct or protests, for the argument in practically every case is along club lines, and not on broad principles. THE REFEREES. Last week- the "Management Committee discussed with a considerable amount of frankness the position relating to the referees. To those who have followed the games this season there may appear to be a link between certain matches in which a crowd has demonstrated its criticism of rulings of the referee and the introduction of the question for discussion at jthe League's meeting. The refereeing 'question is a particularly delicate one ' in the case of the League, for with a | comparatively new code it is inevitable that many of the senior referees must be men who have a greater theoretical; knowledge than playing experience of the game, while ex-players who take on refereeing have participated in the competitions too recently to be with an unreasoning crowd as irreproachably above suspicion as Caesar's wife. One or two of the proposals brought forward for wrenching, without apology, power of selection of referees from the hands of the Referees' Association would, in the opinion of this writer, have had di6a_. trous results upon the relationship between the League and the referees, and the decision to allow the Association to select the three senior Teferees, who will be allocated to the matches by the Management Committee, was a happy compromise. At the same time a warning note should be sounded against lending too ready an car to the complaints ot 'biassed partisans and occasional dissatisfied players against the selection of the referees. The League must learn to walk before it can run. In a new game ideal referees cannot be obtained for the mere asking, and, in the meantime, it should be to the League's interests to repose the fullest confidence in the Referees' Association, giving it the warmest encouragement in its endeavours to Taiso the standard refereeing. Probably it is right for the League to dictate the method by which the referees shall be selected by the Referees' Association, and it is certainly proper that the League should be possessed of power to deal with grossly incompetent control and incorrect rulings, but the main difficulty is exercising that supervision* without reducing the Referees' Association to the status of a mere debating ekib. In the case of the referees, as in that of the Junior Advisory Board, the League should aim at giving dignity and reasonable authority; otherwise players And club partisans will control the game, and not the competent official bodies of the League. A COMPLAINT AND APPEAL BOARD. Probably the ultimate solution of all these problems will lie in delegating larger powers to the subsidiary bodies and creating a board, consisting, say of one representative each of the Management Committee, the Referees' Association, the Junior Advisory Board and the players themselves, to deal with every complaint and appeal relating to rulings and interpretations, misconduct, protests aud the competency ■of referees. The decision of this board should be absolutely final, and not subject to review by the League. Ti.u_ biassed and trivial complaints would be given the short shrift they richly deserve, and where there are genuine grievances there -would be no longer the unpleasant process of washing soiled linen in public. RANGERS' RE-UNION. Newton failed to catch the silver bird and missed the senior competitions honours, though they ran the third grade competitions to the final, and proved themselves runnera-up in this grade. The president (Mr. C. Gray), in referring at last Saturday night's smoke concert to the uphill fight of the Newton Club against the prevailing war conditions, said the success in placing teams regularly ii* the field- wi_ due to the eaergiee

of several of the old members, notably, Messrs. Bennett, Blakey, Farrant and Fellow es. He congratulated the club in having such good workers, and hoped that when times became normal tbe Newton Rangers would attain such honours that -had. fallen to them in th_ earlier days of the game. About 100 visitors and members were present. Messrs. Pollock and Spinley represented the parent 'body and outlined the salient points of the League's policy for the future. During the evening R. Lovett, an ex-junior, was presented with a gold medallion in recognition of his havinsj attained 6cnior honours. SOME COUNTRY PLAYERS. The players in the augmented City combination which journeyed to Ngaruawahia on Saturday are so well known to the football public that little more can be said as to their merits. That is not to say, of course, that their play does not call for criticism. Indeed if their display on Saturday was any criterion of the season's form many of them would not register many points with the selector towards.representative caps. The country team, though beaten, put up a good fight. Unfortunately they appeared to think that their defeat was a foregone conclusion, and it was only in the second spell that they woke up to the idea that they might score a win. They were hampered also by the fact that they had not played together previously. In the rear division Booth, a young player, did some good work. He made a number of serious mistakes, but aiEO displayed a lot of initiative, and on several occasions not only got his side cut of a difficult situation, but also turned the defensive into •an offensive. Kay and Littlewood both made a good showing in the threequarter line, and at five-eighths Sprague was brilliant in patches. Their efforts were all individual, however, and there was little attempt at combination. In the forwards Callaghan was outstanding. He is a very fine player, both in close work I and in the loose, and has weight and speed. Hadden, Mansfield and Cameron I also did good service for the local repre I eentatives. Although practically every penalty was against the City players, a Bcction of the spectators persisted in the assertion that the referee, Mr. T. Fielding, did not interpret some rules correctly. If the rules had been interpreted strictly the country combination would have suffered more often than the visitors.