Football

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 86, 27 March 1926, Page 10

Football

■ A PPARENTLY the tour of the Maori team in France is to eome off, after all. At one time it seemed that the idea Would have T ,to bo dropped, mainly on account of the difficulty of assuring the finance. Apparently this difficulty has been got over, for the New Zealand Union is completing the arrangements- for the tour . It is very much open to doubt whether the tour is altogether a good thing. Quite a lot of people hold the view that overseas and other tours are being a bit overdone;; and quite a fair number of the Maori, players Jikely ,to go on the forthcoming trip have done a considerable amount of.touring in the last three or four years. After all,- no one wants to see either Maoris or Europeans taking up football .as a permanent occupation, paid or otherwise, and two six or seven month trips in two and a-half years does not leave much time for work. It must be remembered that Maori players arceligible for national sides as well as pakeha players, afid sectional tours of this sort seem likely to cause a certain amount of heartburning. That the team will be a good one and a popular ,one goes without saying, but they cannot hope to be as strong as a properly picked Dominion team, and a few defeats for this teaim.will tend to damage the Dominion’s Rugby , prestige among the undiscriminating.

I notice one Wellington paper puts Bert Gircnside down among the eligible* for a Maori team. The qualifications for places in Maori teams have been pretty severely stretched on occasion ,but it would be something of a job to stretch them , far enough to include the Hastings flier. Qualifications for international sides are pretty ; slight at Home at times. Scotland, in particular lias sometimes relied on very slender ties to qualify a player for the international side. Many a colonial player has got his . cap for Scotland whoso .only qualification outside play was the fact that one parent come from tlie “Land o’ Cakes.” One player got a place in the Scottish trial matches because his national grandfather was a Scotchman .though the player’s . father . was a Swiss. A Scotch international player who was once questioned as to his right to play for Scotland is (reported to have replied, after due consideration “Well, I once kept an Aberdeen terrier.”

Last Saturday saw the end of the cricket season in Canterbury r and football is being looked forward to in Christchurch with keener interest than evei 1 . Last season’s rep. team was a very strong one and it is confidently expected that this- year’s side will be even stronger. Eight matches were played, four being won and an equal number lost. All the four games lost were played in the North Island, not a game being won on the northern tour. The games played at home, however, were all won. The representative team goes south this year, playing Otago, Southland, and South Canterbury. Last season no fewer than 202 teams competed in the various grades, and it is ekpected that the total will be even heavier this year. The season is to begin on either April lOch. or 17th. and a good many of the clubs are already in active training.

Over in Taranaki they are. not at all satisfied with the way things are shaping in the “Butter Province.” Their troubles are largely due to the fact that the Union controls a very wide area, and the senior and junior ■competitions cover the whole of the province, teams coming from places as far apart as <Patea and Waitara. This big field makes t the control of Rugby very difficult, and finance has nearly always been more or loss of a worry to the Taranaki authorities. Another bone of contention is the selection of representative teams', and the ~present system of selection by a committee of three has been jjretty extensivelv condemned. A sole selec-‘ tor would probably fill the bill, but the question of discovering the right man will take some solving. One of those suggested for the post is Charlie Brown, a former All Black half with a long record.

The. proposed secession of Danncvirke from the Hawke’s Bay Union draws pointed attention once more to the anomalous position of Sub-Unions in the Lav district. It is hardly to. be expected that populous -centres like Dannevirke are going to remain indefinitely content with a- system which denies them more than one representative on the H.8.R.U., while pioribund Napier senior clubs sway the football destinies of the whole province. Hastings, of course, labours under the same disability, and one wonders how long the principles of the Napier Thirty Thousand Club are to be allowed to rule football in this district.

Professional football has at last made its appearance openly in the United States. For years past it has been an open secret that a good many of the footballers at different Universities and schools were getting an education for nothing, with a little extra “on the side” to help them along. The huge gates drawn by the college games have now. however, attracted the covetous attention ot professional promoters, and the college athletes in the Great Republic find themselves provided with openings at salaries which would turn the most highly paid Northern Union (or League) player green with envy. “Red” Grange* a famous Illinois halfback, for instance, receives a liberal, percentage of the gate receipts from most of his games, 35,000 dollars being his share in New York. Besides this he has already received 40,000 dollars for the use of his name, and a moving picture contract provides for a percentage from his first picture, with a .minimum of 300,000 dollars. It is estimated he will clear 500.000 dollars before the winter is over. And he is far from being the only pebble on the , beach . Ernie Nevers, the captain of I Stanford, was given 25,000 dollars to ' sign a contract for five games, plus : a percentage of the gates. Wilson, a ; Washington player, gets 6.000 dollars I for two games. These figures, of 1 course, are not made possible by admission fees of I/- per head. live dollars per head is quite an ordinary charge. '