FOOTBALL PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 100, 2 May 1929, Page 11

FOOTBALL PROBLEM

MELBOURNE DIFFICULTY

PKOGHBSS OF PIiOFES

SIONALISM

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, L'otli April. New Zcalaudcrs, with their freetlom Irom professionalism as far as tliuir I'ool-liiilk-rts urc eoiieurncil, will, perhaps, find it iliiliuult to apin-eciute the piubkin that is lacing sonic of the big clubs in .Mclhournc —that of liiulinj,' work for tlioir players. .Football is a real busiuess iit Melbourne —more bo than in any other purl of Australia. There, of eomse, they jil.iy according (o Australian rules—and ' .Melbourne; people say that it is the only real lootball there is. An ellort is being made to introduce liugby, but it is surely doomed to failure. The All lilacs mi-lit be able lo tell us more definitely of the prospects after their visit lo the Southern capital this .year.

In .Melbourne footballers are brought Irom the country if they are good players, and in most instances they make it a condition that they should be provided with work-work, of course, that will not mtcrtere in any way with their trainiii" In these days of unemployment, the task ot lnuling work for a country footballer is no easy matter, and there lias been a. storm at one of the council meetings beta use it wa.s revealed that an ollieer had provided work for a country footballer to the exclusion ot" all the local unemployed who had been clamouring for work for weeks past.

In addition to the reiuuneratioi: that comes from thm position that is found tor him, a Melbourne footballer also receives a fixed payment of say, .02 10s or .C'J 10s a week from the club "for which he plays, plus a bonus on the profits at the end of the year. This bonus in the case ol one club—Carlton—last year meant an additional £(i a week to the players who took part in every match' played by the club during the season. When employment is'sought for a footballer the municipal council is usually the lirst employer to bo approached, and usually the councils are only too ready to find places for players of repute. A good football team in a. municipality, it is said, adds a great deal of civic pride to the residents, especially if the club be a League club. Coburg has been trying hard for the last couple of years to become .a League club. It was even said that when Richmond won the premiership for the first time Inst year the population of the suburb suddenly increased. "You can't lind an empty house in Kichmoud now the Tigers aro premiers,' 1 -was the club's boast. Some of the "jobs" provided for players .■■all for little bodily or mental exertion. One League player was Riven a job in a brewery, but ho left it after a while. lie found it too trying.' It was his task to watch tho never-ending inarch of empties as they went past on a carrier to see that no corks had been inadvertently left in any of the bottles.

ill country newspapers in Victoria it i.s not unusual to sec an advertisement running-: "Wanted .1 hairdresser. Must be n gooil footballer."