FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11520, 3 November 1900, Page 6

FOOTBALL.

The no-charge rule of the Northern Union with regard to free-kicks appears to be coming in for some criticism (says the Manchester Athletic News). To not only give a free-kick, bat to allow men to placo goals frem the kicks -without any' opportunity of preventing the points •being' scored, is being found to bo ft most serious factor in the game. The. answer naturally is that if men will only play the game they will not incur penalties. But the dividing line between fair and unfair play is sometimes very thin, and -it requires no little perspicacity on the part of referees to always discern it. Already there have been a few goals scored under the new arrangement which would have been improbable under the old, and -he opinion seems to be gaining ground that the penalties are too severe. On that point, however, it would only be fair to withhold judgment until there has been greater experience of the nsw regulations. One feature that we are afraid will follow the nocharge rale is the development of other means of putting goal-kickers off their shots. Discordant cries from the defending players, and their excited patrons round the ropes •will not improve the temper of the football field. PROMEO7NT PLAYERS OF NEW ZEALAND. It may not be out .of place if an effort is made in a few lines to single out the most prominent of the individual players who were met with on the team's tour, which embraced matches against every first-class football union in the colony save Wairarapa, says the writer of football notes in the Otago Witness, in concluding a series of article'! on the Northern tour of the Otago representative team. In Auckland- the finest forward team was encountered. It may not bo the best in the colony, far they say in Canterbury that the Wairarapa forwards were streets ahead of any other forward team they saw during the season, and it may be that the Wairarapa forward division is as good 'tis,or better than, the Auckland one. But certainly Auckland was the pick of those ; that Otago fell up against. On the other h:>nd, there was no back team that was superior to that sent away by Otago. It did not coma up to the old Otago standard, but still, there was nothing in the colony to beat it—and this although some of the players were certainly not of more than average ability. The fact is that New Zealand has few brilliant backs at the present time. It has no fullback, for example, who possesses alhthe requisites which a fullback should possess. Singularly enough the best game that was played against the Otago team was shown by a man who came on as a substitute. This was Middleton, who was allowed to take Burrell's place in the second spell of the Canterbury match. Burrell wan known to bo "off colour" before the match started, but if he -had done better work in the season than Middleton showed himself capable of doing, ho must be the best fullback in the colony. There is no wing-threequarter back with better qualifications than " Scobie" Mackenzie. If a New Zealand representative team had to be picked to-morrow, the Dunedin Club player would be one of the certainties for it. He has his off days, as everyone else has, but his all-round ability both as a defensive an'd an attacking player is unquestionable. There would be some difficulty in other wing throequarter back. G. Stephenson is cleverer than any of the remaining players in the position, and he is not as slow as many people supposeindeed, his sprinting at practices in the North was as surprising as it was amusingso that he would have to be considered. Bain, o? Southland, is a man who, with a really good combination in front oil him, would probably; however, be better worth a place, and I am satisfied thafwo did not see Auckland's best attacking threequarter back, Absolum being stronger in this respect than either Harrison or McPike. The latter two have gone down greatly in the estimation of the Otago players. It is difficult to find a sounder cen-tre-three quarter back in the colony than McGregor, of Auckland. Possibly, if Wallace had been playing in that position, he might have proved a better man, but on the form shown by men in the position in the Otago's team's matches McGregor was, perhaps, the best. Another Auckland man in Kiernan is as good a scrum halfback as there is in the colony at the present time, and if two other halves were wanted they would have to come from Duncan (Otago}. Wood (Wellington), and Mynott (Taranaki). The two latter are players with a lot of dash, and each of them is capable of being improved in his play. Neither of them is an all-round exponent of the game like Duncan, who, not always showy in his work, is invariably solid. There is more evenness among the forwards than among the backs. The Auckland forwards as a combination are a fine lot, but it would be difficult to pick out any of them as being of outstanding merit. Cunningham is probably the best lock man in the colony, and Auckland has a couple of good frontrankers, but so also- have Canterbury and Southland, . and Spiers (of - Otago) must be reckoned among the ,-best of them. The finest all-round forward in the colony. I should say, is O'Dowda (Taranaki), who, even when out of practice, plays a brilliant game. Calnan and McAnally (Wellington) and Corsbie (Canterbury) are dashing players, while Cross (Otago) must certainly be ranked with them. : And then there is'the Wairarapa pack. You pay your money and yT>u take your choice.