SELECTORS CRITICISED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 80, 1 October 1924, Page 5

SELECTORS CRITICISED

INSUFFICIENT ATTENTION P4.ID TO WEATHER CONDITIONS.

(X TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

. _ NAPIER, 30th September. Upimons which should prove of more than ordinary interest were expressed by Mr. Norman M'Kenzie, one of the All .Black selectors, in conversation with a reporter to-day. "The first thing that appeals to me," stated Mr.. M'Kenzie, is the confidence with which the Selection Committee approaches matches to be played. It does not appear to be afraid to make quite radical changes in tne team from match to match. That perhaps, is necessary, as far as the backs are concerned, to get an idea of how one player's methods are suited to those of another. That might be all right, but still from the personnel of the teams being sent through by cable, and the weather conditions under which the matches are being played, to me it appears as though the Selection Committee is not giving sufficient thought to the players most suited to the requirements of the day.

"Take, for instance, Badeley, who apparently has not played to date. It might be^that he is incapacitated and not yet able to play. Still, he is a wetweather back, and generally shines when the ball is greasy. Two excellent opportunities for Badeley, in the Somerset and Goucester games, which were played in the wet, have been, let go by. I consider that an opportunity should have been made to play him before this. Dalley is another wet-day player, whilst Hart, on the other hand, was impressive during the trial games as a good wing-three-quarter on a dry day. In the only game in which he has played, the conditions were atrocious. It is incidents such as these that haver led me to believe that the Selection Committee is not giving enough thought or consideration to the weather conditions.

"Although frequent changes ar« being made in the team," continued Mr. M'Kenzie, "there are some players who, I think, are being used too frequently for so early in the tour. They are what you might call 'stars,' and really should be nursed for hard games. The strain of playing them almost every match at the commencement of the tour will be such that they will become stale when they are wanted for big games later on. It is the best men in the team who are watched, and who eventually come in for heavy handling. Cooke and M. Browulie are two who to date have taken the field in. almost every match Then, again, there are other big men of whom little use has so fax been made, and who require fairly frequent games to keep them fit. "There as still another little point in '^gard to the endeavour to secure a satisfactory understanding between the half and five-eighth positions, and that is so far as Mill and Nicholls are concerned. In the North and South Island match they combined will, and, in fact, gave a splendid exhibition, yet the Selection Committee has not tried that combination in its matches to date. It is acombination worthy of trial."