LEAGUE FOOTBALL

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 9

LEAGUE FOOTBALL

* . MANUKATPS CHANGE OVER. COMPLAINT OF UNFAIR TREATMENT. REPLY BY JUNIOR MANAGEMENT SECRETARY. The deserting of the League code and joining up with the Rugby Union by the Manukau Club, following upon what the < club secretary stated was the end of a long « series of unsatisfactory decisions given against the club, was referred to this morn- ' ing by Mr. G. 11. Seager. lion. sec. of the I Junior Management Committee of the Auck- i land League. Referring to the letter written by the ' Manukau Club's secretary, Mr. Seager said : ' Mr. Williams, in the first place, stated the , Manukau Club were not aware that King had played for Mangere. This was difficult ' to understand, as King stated, when he j appeared before tho Judicial Committee. , that the Manukau Club were aware o£ his playing for Mangere without first getting a ' transfer. At a meeting of the Judicial j Committee, held on Tuesday, Sth inst.. at which the committee of the Manukau Club attended, the members again stated they : knew King had played for Mangere. Mr. Williams said his club seemed to have been at fault in not reporting King when he played for Mangere, and added, there was no rule to say a club must do so. "I wish ; to state that the Manukau Club were quite aware of the rule which gives a club power to report any cases of a similar nature as King's." said Mr. Seagar, "and have the Manukau 61ub forgotten already a case -which occurred a few weeks back, when their own delegate on the Junior Management Committee reported a member of their fourth-grade team who got his younger brother to weigh in in his name in the sixth-grade, and, after being warned by the Jelegate, he had played in the lower grade, which resulted in the Manukau team losing the game. No objection was raised against this; and again, the Manukau Club had on two occasions this season reported cases of this sort against other clubs. The club was given every consideration in this case, and had every opportunity of placing their evidence before the committee. •; "At the meeting on Tuesday last members of the club admitted that King's case was the cause of them le.-ivins the game. So it is hard to see how this case lnis brojught an end to a long scries of unsatisfactory decisions against the Manukau Club, extending over a period of three years. In the past year the only case I can recall in which the Manukau Club might have thought they had a grievance was one on which they appealed to the Auckland League and the New Zealand Council against a decision of tho Junior Management Committee, and on each occasion their appeal was dismissed. The above case will show that in the past the Manukau Club have had every consideration on their protests, and for then* to now state they found it impossible to win a protest against the 'pull' one club has on the Judicial Committee is absolutely ridiculous. The present personnel of the controlling bodies of junior football is a Judicial Committee of five independent gentlemen free of any club interest, and the Junior Management Committee of twentyflve members, therefore It is undoubtedly a very weak contention of the Manukau Club to suggest that can be influenced by one city club."