REAL FOOTBALL.

NZ Truth, Issue 868, 15 July 1922, Page 7

REAL FOOTBALL.

How New Zealand Won.

New Zealand, meaning the few who had the good luck to see the three Tests, has, or have, seen the absolute extremes m Soccer, football, brilliance and dash at Dunedih and- Auckland,and very Plain Jan/» football at Wellington, and the three men, not the 22 players, who made the games what they were were Mosars. Thornleiprht at Dunedin, Lithgow at "Wellington, and Dawson at Auckland. At Dunedin and Auckland the referees said "Play the ball," and meant it, but Bob Ijithgbw, at Wellington, took a wide) view of Rule 9 and allowed the blocking and' obstruction game right through. Well and good for a time, but a rep. footballer m form is no less human than the man m the street when he is bumped twice off the footpath m 20 yards, the only differenc i being that the rep. has not so long to wait to return the sam i with quite a few complimentß added. You can talk of high spirits, excitement before the crowd, healthy rivalry, or anything else euphemistic and complimentary but m plain fact, boot, would probably' have been the right word to cover what, would have happened at Auckland last Saturday had Referee Daweon allowed the blocking game m th« third Test.. New .Zealanders and Aussies were alike sore about shins and heads and shoulders — no need to set out the full list — after the Wellington game, and they were still sore m their heads when the Auckland game got under way, and trouble due to one or other or all of the aforesaid euphemisms would probably have followed had the ball been ruled secondary to the man.

Whether the referee considered that likelihood or not he naturally did not say, but m any case his rulings would have been the same, for m all the big games he has handled recently th» obstruction game has been firmly ruled out. Obstruction is not precisely the correct terni, for obstruction is allowable, but the new obstruction is of a very lively brand; if a man runs against a brick wall that is his fault, but ifi the wall runs against him he is apt to ask what-the-devil! Both teams professed themselves as dissatisfied with the exaggerated style of the Wellington Test, yet there were beginnings of the same piay at Auckland, but they were beginnings only. Prom the kick-off the referee had the game UNDER ABSOLUTE CONTROL.. He is a couple of stone lighter than the average player m either team, but his whistle certainly has pep. The second Test, too, was under thorough control, but that control waa based on the wider reading of the rule and there was the difference that disappointed 11,000 people at Wellington and kept 8500 folk at Auckland on their feet applauding blight play by either side.

Auckland people accepted the rulings without question, but the fewWellington enthusiasts who made the trip to see what would happen wer. often surprised m the first few mm utes and said so irf a loud and protesting voice. Mr. Dawson is not the man to be, swayed by th^ bank's remarks and he carried c.n with tho game under extraordinary control. Don't think for one moment that thrplay was soft; it was anything but that, there was charging all right when a man had the ball and there was shepherding, but when' a BlacV. forward charged a Blue back, or' vice versa, on the off chinee that a second Blue back might pass over from 20 yards, the game stopped with a jolt 1 otten the whistle,, blew before the charge was completed. The refer eo did his job, and most of it m the first quarter of an hour, foi, after that, play-the-ball was the only style the crowd wanted and the only game th" players knew that had a chance of getting away with. - After all it is the only style worth bothering about. It makes for speed for combination, not only between halves and halves and forwards and forwards and halves, but for true team combination. ' The blocking game aims not at making football but at stopping the other fellow from playing football. Given a referee nor, like Messrs. Thornleighs or Dawsor nnd with more extreme views than Mr. Lithgow, the team that packed guns and dynamite bombs, within the limits of the rules, would establish an astonishing: record of successes. The public must be considered, ana If it considers that it ha* been

FQOLED OUT OF ITS BOBS when it sees most of the 2? right ou. to stop most of the others from ever gotting near the ball, it won't come along again. Then, very shortly after it decides, to stay at home to dig,.the gprdenor to go along .to watch anoth-t-r brand' of game, Soccer popularity v.-ill come a dull thud and the lina showing the growth of v the game wi!' fall righ.<i off the chart.: The seconi Test took three years' growth from Soccer.

Quite apart from what the publi ? may think the* open game makes for the true sporting feeliig between players. It is many a ling day since a Soccer player was or lored off the field, but* if the blocking style is al lowed to develop further games cannot be prevented from degenerating iato Rial" rough-house and quite a fow of the nlayers Avho are: not ordered off will be carried off.

THE PRO. GAME. It is hard to understand the attitude taken up by '.he chairman of the N.Z.F.A., Mr. C. E. Fordham. Critics of the obstruction game he answers with the bare wording of Rule 9 with the big chief Pickford: Charging that is neither violent violent nor uangerous has always been allowed, though not hitherto expressed, ' m the laws. Toy international Board has male this addition, and referees should carry it out. Let charging be of the good, honest, type, and not degenerate intp rough play. Charging an opponent who has the ball, or who is causing an' obstruction, . or who is going- for tho ball, or m. some ' way manoeuv-, ring 1 to gain an a<3^ antn zb,. isporvnis; sibie; but charging,, when ' there is no reason for it is riot. There should be some reason . for a charge, and a reason having a . bearing on th.fi points, as, for instance, of ridding ... opponent of the ball, of prevent-

ing him getting it when he is making the effort, of clearing him out of the way when he is trying to obstruct, and of stopping him from getting past m order to take a pass, or interfere with someone else. The charge should be delivered with the shoulder only, and the fair weight of , the - body * neither stooping nor jumping, nor "below the belt," so to speak. .And the law continues: "A - player shall not be charged from behind unless : he is intentionally obstructing an opponent."

When he is finished quoting he talks of Cup Tie form. Now, Cup Tie form is professional form. New Zealand Soccer has so far had nothing to do with pro. football and wants none of it. Here we want to see football that we can • enjoy and shout over, and most players prefer to walk home rather than to be carried home on a stretcher, for exaggerated obstruction sooner or later means disaster for someone. Mr. Fordham quite agrees that dangerous charging must .not be allowed but he has . not shown anyone wkere to draw the line. But-

WHERE IS THE DANGER • LINE? Referee Dawson denned it at the dinner after the match: "As . soon as one player loses his temper ' charging becomes dangerous. You men and all other Soccer players are good sports, but you are not angels." And there you have it.

A point that Aussie^speakers at the dinner made was that there was;

NO UNIFORMITY as to charging m the Dominion. One town charged, played the 'chop* game, as one of them put it after the Wellington Test," another would not tolerate that style, and as a result visitors did not know where they stood. Either Australia, with the no -charge rule (except where a man was m possesT sion), was wrong, or the charge towns of the Dominion were wide of the mark, but at least Australia was consistent and it was up to the N.Z.F.AV to cut off the lumps and fill m the hollows, and the full house present banged the tables m agreement.

The Aussies have drawn attention to at least one big point and the N.Z. control stands so much m debt to them.