RULES FOOTBALL PLAYERS’ TOUR

Press, Volume C, Issue 29651, 23 October 1961, Page 12

RULES FOOTBALL PLAYERS’ TOUR

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Oct. 22. Fifty members of the Melbourne Football Club (Australian Rules) arrived in Wellington yesterday in the course of a two-week "reward” holiday tour of New Zealand costing more than £14.000. After a display at Kilbirnie in the morning, the visitors attended the races at Trentham in the afternoon, and flew to Auckland this afternoon. They will give an exhibition at Epsom on Monday and hope to provide another at the Hamilton Show on Friday night before their return to Melbourne on Saturday. The last week's tour of the South Island—from Christchurch to Dunedin, Queenstown, Mount Cook, and flights to Milford Sound and the glaciers—was described by the tour manager and secretary of the Melbourne F.C. (Mr J. Cardwell) as fantastic and worth every penny it has cost the club. The boys had visited all the scenic spots in Australia but had seen nothing like the South Island before. They had taken hundreds of photographs and moving pictures. Next week they will visit the Waitomo Caves, and Chateau Tongariro. and Rotorua, among other North Island attractions. The tour is not costing the players a penny. Travel and accomodation accounts for £ 10,000. Each player was completely outfitted for a total cost of £3500. Each married man was given £ll spending money for the trip, and single men £9. A crowd of about 2000 spoiled the demonstration of

Australian Rules kicking and marking by the players. In spite of requests to move back, the spectators crowded in to leave only the area of a Rugby Union field clear. Rules football is played on an oval up to 200 yards long and 175 yards wide. The players w!io gave the display with the long red Rules ball were R. Rarassi (the all-Australia captain, Victoria and Melbourne captain), F. Adams (the Australian professional sprint champion), B. Dixon (winner of the best and fairest player medal at the 1961 Australian Rules carnival), and J. Lord, R. Johnson, and B. Massey.