FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 18374, 7 September 1923, Page 8

FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT.

'JO IHK KDl‘l OR. Sir, —Being connected with football for a number oi years, 1 would like to enter my protest against t-lio way things aro carried ou by llio Otago Kugby Union. In the first place, I think most true sports iu football will agree with me that if wo havo not a better selector than Mr Stuart to represent Otago in selecting the All Black ” team, (lion, for heaven’s sake, lot us do without nno and get the best New Zealand has for the position. My idea of a. .selector is not a man that will go to Wellington and try to get no ono but Otago players in the New Zealand team, so that he can come back and shine in the limelight, and bo called a good fellow by a few that can only see ihe way he does. No, sir. In the first place we want a selector who is a good judge of football, not ono who has been. Then, we take the ca.se of Mackereth, I ask you, sir, does this gentlemen deserve the treatment ho received at the hands of our selector. I say “ our selector,” because I take it he was put in by him and put out without a game. That, I lake it, ifi a d irect insult to this player; and, to go a bit further, those players aro the ones that have been keeping the interest in football up and attracting the big gates and doing their best to bring in revenue. Yes, they are the people, not the committee of the Otago Rugby Union. Then, again, wo have a Rugby Union packed with a lot of " old timers,” a very few of whom have ever represented Ota,go, and those who have wore in the dark ages; also, .they havo their rules made so that onco you havo been a vice-pre-sident you cannot be kept off the committee. I will agree with some people that some of them have their uses,, such as keeping hoys from wandering on the ground, ami others for attending smoke concerts and other places of amusement for nothing. But when there is .a good match on yon will sec all the ox-players who havo represented Otago, and the mainstay of football, sitting out on the grass,' while, the Rugby officers, with their wives and friends, are in the box seat in the stand. But you don’t see the referees, who have worked and done far more for football than any of the Rugby Union, in the stand. No, out on the grass is good enough for them. Well, to my mind, it is time that the younger, active members took a stand and pushed out this committee, who are back numbers. Then, again, we might see a balance-sheet and know where this public money goes, and also find out what is the attraction that keeps this old committee there. It would also bo interesting to know who aro on the free list, and get the names published, T am, e!c., Wake Up. September 7.