Our National Field Game

NZ Truth, Issue 979, 30 August 1924, Page 9

Our National Field Game

Players On The Ball

In Town and Country

The 1924 season is rapidly dying, and the big majority of enthusiasts Will be very pleased when the final bell is sounded. There is no denying that this season has been a, most disappointing one. Only; on rare occasions have we seen football that one could go into ecsta-V sies of delight over. The play has been of a very poor standard generally speaking, and at times it has been painful to have to sit out some of the shocking exhibitions given. > The All Black trials took all the glamor out of club play, but as the trials were only played m five cities they should not be held to be the culprit responsible for the all-round deterioration that became pronounced once the All Blacks were selected. During the season "Tackier" has witnessed games from one end of New Zealand to the other, and m each and every place the same tale is to be told. Public enthusiasm was at fever, heat till 'the All Blacks were picked, but with the twenty-nine men sorted out, the flame went out. ■'■"■•. Attendances fell off, and with only poor crowds to see them m action the teams drifted into a go-as-you-please style., Play lacked the vim and snap so necessary to the successful exploitation of •Rugby. Combination and science were forgotten and , a mediocre style crept m. • . It is hard to reason this decline In standard.' Certainly a small percentage of players lost heart when they found they had missed the bus for the tour, but that cannot be the reason. One swallow does not make a summer and one disheartened player does -not affect play throughout New Zealand. It was not hard to pick that once the All Black team was selected the attendances at matches 'were going to fall off. When the trials were at their height, "Tackier" suggested that a second All Black > team should be selected and sent for, a tour of New Zealand. ■ The suggestion wa's not acted upon (not that I expected it to be) but to any keen, follower it was very evident that such a : course . w,ould have been a most wise one. It is years since an All Black team went through the Dominion, playing the » different provinces. That honor of late has been awarded to the Maoris, who only as recently as last year made a tour of both islands. • • Why the Maoris should be sorted out for this special privilege I do not know, but the fact remains that if the Natives are a good enough attraction for a Dominion tour the All Blacks would: be doubly so. . Down the West Coast of the South Island the Unions do not get many star games, and that they have strong opposition down there m the nature of League is not to be denied. When a visiting League combination comes to these shores it always pays a call at Greymbuth. One cannot draw a parallel with crack - Rugby teams, though m 1921 both the Springboks and the Cornstalks visited that region. It is not possible to estimate the amountvof good a tour of New Zealand by an All Black team would have accomplished, both from the point ; of view of the public and the. player. To the writer it was_ a golden opportunity lost, and the failure •to do so is now being reflected m certain towns where there is a drift to League. Switching to the League question, a fortnight •: back "Tackier" mentioned that several, prominent players were talking of going over to the thirteen aside game next season. Since writing that I have heard nothing to modify my statements. . ; The "bogey," we will call it that for the meantime, has "not had any material effect on the 'Wellington Union. The members of that body are treating the matter as more or less of a joke. They can afford to at the present time, but with all due respect, I may point out that it is not a' joking matter. It is a matter of cold, hard fact, and before many more seasons have gone they will know it, perhaps to their Borrow. League is making headway m New Zealand, of that there is no doubt. In' Auckland and Canterbury the game is firmly established, whilst on the West Coast there Is more than a small sprinkling of players. So far as Wellington is concerned the game is at a very low ebb, but it only heeds the services of a few good players to give it a tremendous boost. Manawatu is coming into the arena, Dunedin has teams m the making. That there is life m the League camp can readily be Been from the work that its henchmen are carrying out. It now only wants the English Lear gue body to sanction a tour of Britain next year by a New Zealand combination. The writer has an idea that somebody would be killed m the rush to get inside the League gates! • No, League is not a spook. It is a fair dlnkum live body living on oxygen just the same as the Rugby counsellors. There are very few "house" teams m Wellington who can put m the field a fifteen as strong as the Tramways. The Hide contains no fewer than nine senior players, four of whom, Doc. Nicholls, J. Darling, J. Hickllng, and N. Walters, played for their clubs this season, whilst tho remaining five were prominent men m the senior championship matches last year. Included m these nine are five ex-Wellington representatives and ono ex-All Blaok. The British team now touring South Africa has not met with much success. In the first test match played, South Africa came out winners by seven points to three, the margin of four points being made up by a potted goal. In the second test, played laßt Saturday, however, South Afric^ demonstrated their superiority In no uncertain manner, and ran up a score of 17 points to their opponents' nil. It was Just as well for the New Plymouth High School that the Moascar Cup was not involved m their game against Auckland Grammar School lnst Saturday, otherwise that trophy would have returned to its former holders. After a splendid game the northerners ran out winners by njne points to six. They grave a brilliant display, and their success was well uesorved. On the day, Grammar were the better team, and they can attribute their win to the inability of the School backs to get Into action. Tho said inability was a case of a team playing as well as the opposition will let it. The rop. game Tarannkl v. South Auckland was not a sparkling display for two provincial teams, and tho

score of nine points all was a fair indication of the relative merits of the two fifteens. : According to the League heads their code is. not a professional ocoupation, but if the f ollowiug par, clipped from an Aussie paper, is to be takofi as gospel, well; v/hat are they? Here's the par: "Regarding the challenge to the Parkes footballers from the EugoTrra team to play the former for a 100 a-side, ; Mr. C. J. Dwyer, of the Parkes Club, has replied to the effect that Parkes will play them for from £100 to £500 a-side." ' Bdland, who represented Victoria College for the past two seasons, has new gone into practice aa a solicitor at Waimate. He still manages to find time to continue on with the game, and; the other week represented his district m a rep. match against Kurow, when he was to the fore and opened yip' the scoring account for his side: Quite.an exciting game was witnessed at Westport last Saturday when the, Buller representatives defeated i West Coast by six points to five. The losers j made strenuous efforts to pull the g-ame out of the fire, but the Buller defence was too sound, and the Coasters could make no further improvement m their score.- ; -„..'" Some papers are making a bit" of fuss over the fact that Moke Bellies w«i3 played as centre three-quarter m the Wanganui— Nelson game last Saturday. The position is nothing new to Moke. In 1920 that worthy personage was seen m that position for the All Blacks against Wellington on Athletic Park. : ' The All Blacks were just back from Sydney and they were suffering the strains of . battle, so Moke was pushed into the centre berth. He didn't make too bad a fist of it either, but he was not tried out severely, as the score of 38 to 3 m favor of the All Blacks will show.. The game was played on a very heavy ground and after the first ten minutes Wellington were never m the hunt. That vwas the day Jack O'Brien, at full-back, .'scored .tries. . / It wag also 'on that tour Charlie Brown, the Taranaki half-back, made a little bit of history. He was select-, ed as half m which position he played m several' games. Then he had to fiU the full-back's berth and to cap all he played as hooker against Wellington. A most versatile player was Brownie! A correspondent writes inquiring the whereabouts of George Loveridge, who toured' California with the All Blacks m 1913. As far as the writer knows "Bear" is still ■m New Plymouth, a family man. Loveridge was a fine player m his day, when he was surrounded with good men like Jack Stphr, Dick Roberts, the late Ginger Taylor, the late Norky Dewar, Mick Cain, Don Cameron, Charlie. Brown and Co. Those were TaranakPs palmy days. <. Jack Blake, the L brilliant Hawkes Bay centre,, must be accounted unlucky m. not striking his form when the All Black trials were on, for taking a line /through his efforts of late he would have, been a certainly for the trip Home. Everything going to schedule the All Blacks should be hopping off the boat on Tuesday next. They will be shifted up to the 1905 All Blacks headquarters at Newton Abbot, and there got ready for the opening of the. momentous tour. Saturday, September 13, will see their first match decided, against Devonshire. It is to be hoped that the All Blacks do^ not run m to a referee of, the type that controlled the All Black— Surrey game- in 1905. That match was described by most papers as a "whistling Fantasia." A chronicler of the day had the following to say on the subject: "The fantasia commenced m the first minute and continued, with brief intervals for respiratlO'., throughout the game. Directly some one got. the ball and there was a prospect of a bit of play worth seeing the . referee would commence his fascinating solo. "Twenty-five minutes from the start, however, the referee showed signs of fatigue, whereupon the All Blacks, quickly seizing the opportunity— and the ball— crossed the Surrey lino and converted. Several explanations were advanced for the referee's extraordinary lapse, but the two most generally accepted were that he hud either dropped the whistle, or that the pea m it had stuck. "As for the game — there was no game. It was an exposition of the power of music to tame even the New Zealand footballer. At the end of these games there is usually a rush for the jersey of the man who has scored, but on this occasion there was a wild scramble for the referee's whistle." "Tackier" has an idea that Billy Stead can tell a very funny story over the Surrey 'match and I have a shrewd idea that Billy knows where that whistle got to. At Hastings to-day, Manawatu's game with Hawkes Bay will be the fourteenth time on which the district

has been asked to defend the Ranf urly Shield. Wylie, the Hawkes Bay hooker, shortly leaves the district, and to-day plays his last game for the province. As a hooker, he is the best that has played for H.B. since the days of Struthers and- McCarthy. Bert McKenzie, ' Wa'rarapa's crack referee, has an effective manner of dealing with, unnecessary appealing. "Free kick, sir!" yelled an excited player m the North v. South Wairarapa game last Saturday. "Don't be silly!" retorted Mac, bitlngly, and no further appeals were heard from that quarter. A Wellington paper this week, m referring to the members of the Manawatu rep. team; states that Cowie, the full-back, is identical with the Cowie who played for Petone. The writer is on the wrong line, for Cowie the exPetone man is ; now a resident of the Wairarapa. Cowie the, Manawatu man is, I think, a schoolmaster who resides at Woodviile. : : To-day the Tars»naki team will bump into the Wellington fifteen at Athletic Park. The game will be preceded by a curtain-raiser between. the Wellington and Manawatu thirds.