FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8535, 8 April 1891, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

The approach. of the winter season is causing great activity in football circles, and the various clubs have nearly all held their annual meetings, and appointed delegates to represent them at the annual general meeting of the Auckland Rugby Union which takes place on Friday evening next. A considerable defection has taken place this year in the ranks of the senior clubs as the Auckland Football Club and Sel'.vyn Football Club, owing, it is thought, to want of success in the past, have not formed this year. This leaves only three seniors to contest for the Auckland Rugby Union Cup, and as this means only one senior match each week, the public interest in the game may in consequence decline. There is, however, some likelihood of the two junior clubs, Native Rose and Athletic, coalescing and playing as a senior, and this combination, if effected, would prove a very strong one, and well worthy of entering into competition with the older senior clubs. , The lapsing of two senior clubs in one season without any definite attempt being as yet made to fill their places lias, however, caused a great deal of discussion in Rugby circles, and at the Union's meeting there will probably be a scheme advanced to endeavour to provide for more senior teams playing each year. This is to confine the recruiting of each club for members to a particular territorial limit, so that a successful team shall not be able to attract all the good players from all quarters under its banner, to the detriment and winding up of others whose record has b'een perhaps poor for a season or two. It is suggested that the town and suburbs shall be divided into a certain number of districts, in each of which a club shall be formed composed wholly of players residing within the limits of that quarter, and thus if these sections are made upon an equal in regard to population each club will presumably be of about equal strength, and that the present system of having one, a couple, or more very strong clubs, and one or two " duffers " struggling for existence, there shall be six or seven of an approximate equality in strength that will, it is thought, make the Cup contests very interesting. This division, according to residential qualification, is pursued with a big measure of success in England, and to some extent in New South Wales, but whether it will be found practicable here is an open question. All interested consider the idea a good one in the abstract, but it is held that the existing clubs will resist strongly if steps are taken to split up the efficient teams they have been gathering for years. At all events the matter is one which requires earnest consideration, and there is but little doubt but that it will occasion keen discussion on Friday evening next, particularly as there is likely to be a good deal of " new blood " amongst the list of delegates.