FOOTBALL TOUR

Grey River Argus, 28 May 1938, Page 5

FOOTBALL TOUR

Australian Rules MATCHES IN NEW ZEALAND. WELLINGTON, May 26. A view of considerable interest to sportsmen in New Zealand is to be made next year by two Australian rules football teams which will play exhibition matches here. Two games will be played in the North Island, one at Wellington and one at Auckland. Mr J. H. James, who returned from Australia recently, and Mr L. Brablin are to make arrangements for the teams in New Zealand. Mr James went to Australia with the. returned soldiers who participated in the Anzac Day ceremony in Sydney and then went on to Melbourne. The teams, which are due here in July of next year, will be South Melbourne and St. Kilda, both of which have very high positions at present. Mr James said they are to play exhibition football to let New Zalanders see the way in which the game is played by two champion sides. Arrangements are being made to charter a special steamer to bring the players and their supporters across. It was expected that about 200 supporters would travel with the teams. Mr James said the players were very anxious to visit New Zealand, not only for the sake of the game, but to see the country. Two New Zealanders who went to Australia with Mr James, Messrs. J. Ricketts, of Wellington, and P. Todd, of Auckland, were very elated with the game they saw in an ordinary club match, Richmond v. Carlton, which drew a crowd of 35,000 in Melbourne. The game is quite different from Rugby and is very fast. There are 18 men in a team and one| emergency. The 19th man can take I part in the game at any time and if, one of the other players comes off; there are no other substitutes.

The ground on which the Australian rules game is played is oval, and between 175 yards and 200 yards long. It is 150 yards to 175 yards 'vide. There are four posts in alignment at each end of the field, all five yards apart. Two inside posts, which are very tall, are goal posts. The outer posts are known as behind posts. To kick the ball through the goal posts using any part of the leg below the knee counts as six points and through the behind posts as one point. There are no crossbars. Players can leap into the air to take a mark and another feature of the game is the long-distance drop-kicking. Finding touch is not an advantage as in Rugby. In fact the team whose nlayer kicks the ball out is penalised by having a free kick awarded against it. This, of course, would tend to keep the game moving at a fast clip. Players when making a run have to bounce the ball every 10 yards. Mr James anticipate that the visit of the Australians should rouse a good deal of public interest. Arrangements are being made to obtain suitable grounds here and at Auckland.