VOTES BY FULL BACK

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 31

VOTES BY FULL BACK-

I Mr W. Ross, tlio old Otago representative - full back, who has been spending a short holiday in Dunedin, left on Tuesday for Auckland. Mr Ross will probably stand for committee on the- Auckland Rugby Union : this season. The fifth annual g-eneral meeting of tha West Taieri Club was held on February- 23. r ihe balaaeo sheet shows a credit of £1 15s 3d. It was dcci led to open the season in Arril. Mr J. White was appointed delegate to ihe O.R.F.U. The Wellington City Council has refused the application of the Rugby Union for permission to play football on the Basin Itc- ' serve. union has, however, been \ granted leave to use the Newtown Park. ' J. M'Cleary, the old Alhambra veteran, • who as coach for the Pirates Club retains a very active interest in the game, regards the value of a social club room for players as a doubtftu quantity. "Smoking cigarettes and sitting in a club room reading books will never make a man hard, was his dictum at the annual meeting of the Pirates Olub. The empty hall where the members stripped) and got to work with the Leather was his ideal of a footballer's club room. At the same meeting — which, by the way, was very largely attended— an enthusiast who played the gam« in Shvifh Africa advocated a course of lectures, with blackboard illustrations. The Pirates Club start the year with the substantial credit balance of £27 fe 4d. The old story of dilatoriness in subscription-pay-inv was told at the- annual meeting. OrJy £16 out of the £55 received in subscriptions had been paid during the football season, th-e most of the balance having to be chased after by the secretary this year. A suggested remedy was a provision that active members be disqualified if their subscrip- . tions were not paid early in /the season. I The matter did not get beyoftid the sug- ! g-estion stage. Swannell, of last year's British touring team, is still in Sydney. He was an applicant for the pest of paid secretary to the New South Wales Rugby Union, but was i balloted out after the list of applicants had I been reduoed from ten to five. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Pirates Football Club last week, Mr J. Hutchison referred to the selection of the New Zealand team for England, and commented upon the circumstance that after the team had been chosen by the selectors it had beem subjected to revision by another authority, with the result that five of the chosen players had apparently been exI eluded. He agreed that it was necessary I in the selection of such a team that con- ■ sider&tion had to be given to players' qualities apart from their capabilities as footballers ; but he maintained that that consideration should have been given before ; the selectors did their work, otherwise a ! .cruel slur was cast upon the men who, 1 after being selected, were omitted from j the beam. Not only was it cruel, but it ! might also be unjust, and he ventured to i say that the exclusion of an Otago player j who had been chosen by the selectors was j an illustration of the injustice of the course j that had been adopted. j So far, says an Auckland writer, the j N.Z. Rugby Union has volunteered no reason for the names of nine of the players ■ chosen by the selectors not being announced as members of the team. The action of the j union all through has been difficult to ' umderstand, bub its latest effort eclipses all the others. The same writer says : The withdrawal of Harvey from the touring team for Britain will probably mean the inclusion of Kiernan, for a half-back will certainly have to be chosen, and there is- no man in New Zealand who is more fitted for selection than the Graftonite. On March 10 the annual meeting of the New South Wales Football Association (B. A. rules) was held in Sydney. To quote the report, the district scheme "has been a greater success than any of its most sanguine supporters ever anticipated." The balance sheet shows a credit of £16 10s sd, despite an increase in the expenditure owing to a New South Wales team touring New Zealand. A report of the sub-committee appointed to consider the question of a New Zealand team touring New Siouth Wal-es this season was presented at the annual meeting. The little Welshman Llewellyn, who was a member of Bedell-Sivright's British team which toured New Zealand last season, has now retired from the game.