THE NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALLERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13936, 19 December 1905, Page 5

THE NEW ZEALAND FOOTBALLERS.

THE TEAM’S MOVEMENTS. 1 [Pee Peess Association-.] WELLINGTON, December 18. Mr Dixon, the manager of tbe team, lias cabled that it is impracticable for the team to tour and play.in America at the close of their British tour.- - It is understood that tho team will leave on its return journey by the Corintliic about January 13. STRAINED' RELATIONS. TROUBLE IN THE TOURING TEAM. NORTH VERSUS SOUTH. [Pee Peess Association.! DUNEDIN, December 18. It was definitely known in town on Saturday that relations between certain sections of the Now Zealand football team are very"? much strained. This can easily bo gathered from the contents of a number of letters received by the .last mail by friends of tho Otago members. The trouble has apparently arisen out of the old sore feeling over the appointment of Duncan as coach. The letters indicate that from the first the Auckland members set themselves up in sharp opposition to Duncan, and then to The Otago members in general. A number of„ others, including Stead, have sided with the Auckland contingent, and tbo general result lias been that ©very attempt by Duncfm to assert his authority has been met with open hostility. At of the team, while on the field, ho has been simply ignored. “He is just nobody,” is the way one writer sums the position up. It has not been possible to confine the trouble to a question between Duncan and certain others. The Otago members have been drawn into it, and so bitterly that it is rumoured that a well-known Otago player applied , the “ argnmentum ad honiinem ” to one of th© Aucklanders, and gave him a good thrashing. Rightly or wrongly, the Otago members also believe that, owing to the influence of the northern opposition, they are being kept out of matches to which their claims as players -entitle them. Says one of them: “None of ns except/ Ca-seyMs getting a hearing at all, and they would leave Steve out, too, only they can’t do without him, because ho is the best -hooker they’ve got.”