LEAGUE FOOTBALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 121, 25 May 1927, Page 13

LEAGUE FOOTBALL.

WHAT OF THE FUTURE?

LESSONS OF THE PAST.

AUCKLAND'S SHIXIXG EXAMPLE.

Seeing that the Rugby League game was played for the first time in New Zealand during the 1908 season, it must be conceded that the code has made remarkable headway, yet, although it has flourished like the* proverbial green bay-tree in Auckland, and has become •well established in some of the other football centres, it is a matter of plain history that the code has become as extinct at a number of places where once the promise of successes seemed very bright. In this categorr one might mention Bay of Plenty '(Tauranga) Gisborne, Taumarunui, Hawke's Bay (Napier), Wanganui, Manawatu, Taranaii, Nelson, Timaru and Invercargill. It is a fairly formidable list. True at some of the centres named the game passed through merely a transitory stage, and was founded in name only yet in other instances—Hawke's Bay and Wanganui are cases in point—the code had a fairly long, although lingering existence. In the places named the League seed •was planted in a soil, which although apparently fertile, was certainly not fruitful, and the lesson taught is that inauguration is merely a passing phase, and that organisation is the salient requirement to carry the code along. It is also an indication that much of past effort has been futile, and that it is far better to build on a sure foundation, put the game on a solid basis where it already has a hold, before Teaching out for fresh fields. Auckland's Example. As an example where the game was founded, nursed through its infancv, and placed upon an assured plane, Auckland comes easily first, as there are now clubs under the control of the Auckland Rugby/ League. The League has in Carlaw Park one of the best sports-enclosures in the Dominion. It is not too much to say that the securing of a centrally-situated playing area, such as Carlaw Park, was, the real turning point in Auckland, Rugby League history, and eince then the game has never looked back. Fol' lowing Auckland's lead grounds for the code were secured at Christchurch and Dunedin, and there it will need onlj* enthusiasm and organisation to advance the code's fortunes. For a good many; years now the League game has been played in Wellington, but it cannot be said to have made material progress, although it is claimed that the sole disability is the want of playinggrounds, and, in particular, a homeground, either owned by the League, or else leased for a sufficiently long term to justify the improvements and accomodation for the public that is necessary. From the League viewpoint Wellington is the weak spot, and although there are players and supporters there sufficiently interested to do their share, it is apparent that the problem will not be satisfactorily solved until there is more consolidation of the League forces and finances, and the development of a disposition to hold out a helping-hand to others who may no* be so fortunately placed. ~,.-... - .-..

Quite recently a sapient League legislator compared the Leagee game to a tree, and made the niamirental remark that if it were well and truly planted in a receptive soil, the branches would come later. It was quite logical reasoning, and as a matter of fact he might have emphasised hie point had he said that a previous policy of distributing League cuttings here and there, and allowing them to bud amid surroundings that were uncongenial was merely to court failure. Admittedly, some of the cuttings were of the self-sown variety, and that they wilted and died was not a matter of surprise. Of the living League centres, Wellington has been mentioned as an instance of something that may be merely akin to temporary paralysis. Auckland can be cited as a stronghold, Ckmtehurch and Dunedin as exceedingly fruitful fields which merely need exploiting in the proper way, and the West Coast as a case of exuberant growth. Brief but meteoric has been the history of the code in the land between the ranges and the tea, where the yearly rainfall is said— perhaps by unkind people —to be measured in feet instead of the customary inches. There is League at Greymouth, one was formed at Buller last season, and this season the League oanner has been carried to Hpkitika. In a few brief years it has become the leading sports code there, a -wonderful run of success, and an inspiration to League enthusiasts who may set out in the future for new playing worlds to conquer. It was New Zealand that paved the Tray to make Rugby League football an Imperial game, and from the tour of the sfew Zealanders who bravely set out in 1907 to play the cream of the English League clubs —the game had been founded in the North of England twelve years previously —came the ramifications ■which, in due course, embraced New South Wales and Queensland as well! From that time the English League authorities have viewed overseae developments with tolerant eye and benevolent disposition. English League teams have been sent on tour, and every possible assistance has been made to make the code of a national nature. The Home outlook has been commendably wide, marked by a refreshing breadth of vision in these days of stunted survey, and the administration has been a splendid example to Rugby League legislators elsewhere. The altruism of the English Bagby League— •witness the recent formation of a Welsh Rugby League commission and the formation of twelve teams in the principality to play the code—should be an example to League legislators in this land, where the spirit of parochialism, instead of a wide Dominion outlook, has too oftea been in evidence. Survival of Set-back*. No game has in New Zealand gone through so many trials and tribulation* as Rugby League footfctll, yet it B*J» survived—because of its appeal to a big section of the New Zealand sporting public—a multitude of set-backs, aad despite eradication here and there, has bloseomed amaxingly well, and shown exuberant growth. There is no insuperable difficulty in the -way of the code flourishing in all parts of the Dominion just as well as in, Auckland, where admittedly it is strongest. The way to secure success is appreciation of the lessons that Auckland has taught. Here the club spirit has been developed, the espivit de corps and district interest which made Auckland club football in the nineties has been revived, a valuable link in an efficient and enthusiastic referees' association has been forged, the boy player of to-day is encouraged

with the knowledge that he will be the representative pUyer of the future, and more important still, the League torch aae been triumphantly carried into the primary schools, that great aursery and sure skidd of New Zealand sport.