Soccer Sidelights

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 444, 28 August 1928, Page 11

Soccer Sidelights

PASSING NOTES

By

PERSEUS.

An Open Championship: With the final month of the season at hand, and some representative games still showing smoke on the horizon, there is not much Soccer left for the senior clubs. The championship now lies between Ponsonby and Trams, and one game should settle it. Thes_e teams, together with Y.M.C.A., Shore and Corinthians, have to settle their differences in the Chatham Cup knockouts, but for the other clubs there is little that remains of interest except to meet the assessment levied for affiliation pLirposes. The recent iterruptions in play have upset the calculations of some of the clubs in budgeting to meet the new system of levy by weekly contributions collected as ground fees, some of the club committees having estimated a much greater number of playing Saturdays than are now possible. The danger of this was pointed out when the new system was initiated, and it is late in the season now for club treasurers to adjust matters.

Poor Championship Form: Even through the rosiest spectacles, the form shown this season in the senior championship competitoins must appear very poor when compared with the bright and skilful games of many years ago. There are still a number of clever and capable players, but in the matter of combination, team work, and constructive play, the displays given must be considered to have fallen away tremendously from previous standards. Any of the old senior clubs from the early part of the century onwards would run rings round the present teams, and we see nothing now comparable with the thrilling team work shown in the Shore-Navy games just after the war, or the later displays of such fine combinations as the Harbour Board team of a few years back. Why This Falling Away? The cause of this degeneration is not hard to Recount for with those connected with club work. Training on cigarettes, jazz and picture shows, with a carbohydrate diet of lollies and chocolates, is not conducive to good football, and one of the “damning sins” which the rebukers might refer to this week-end is the slackness and indifference of our modern youth in its attitude towards healthy sport. Many of them never touch a ball from one Saturday afternoon to the next, and the idea of training to get fit and keep fit is too oldfashioned to be regarded seriously. The sacrifice of two evenings a week to practice, sprinting, and skipping, with a cold shower, a rub down, and a chalk talk about tactics afterwards, would almost kill some of the modern youths, who are about as fond of cold water as a pet Persian cat. That is why young players of great promise reach a certain stage and stay there, or start to deteriorate. They get into long trousers, and only appear again in shorts for a feeble 90 minutes of a Saturday afternoon. It is always a great joke when some newly-arrived enthusiast Offers his services to a club as a “trainer-coach”! But training and coaching is an absolute essential if the standard of the game is to be raised.

Public Interest Declines: As a result of the sad state of affairs referred to, the public interest in the code has slackened off similarly to the players. The average attendance has' been considerably below previous seasons, although Blandford Park has been in splendid condition right through the season, and there has been none of the epidemic of wet Saturdays whioh made last winter a long-drawn-out season of misery and mud. Club followers seem to have faded away, and it is rarely now that a prolonged cheer or volley of applause is heard. That may be becadse there is so little to cheer or applaud. The game has lost a lot of its old glamour, but there are signs of hopefulness in the growing number of new clubs, particularly in the outer suburbs, which take their Soccer very seriously and set a good example to the town ones in the keenness and zest with which they have taken up the game.

On Mr. Neeshanrs Selection. —ln spite of the lack of notice and the hurried arrangements which were only finalised by telephone with Wellington on Sunday, there is every hope of the strongest side available travelling to Wellington this week-end to play the challenge match with the holders of the P.A. trophy. Mr. Neesham will hot be held to blame if the sudden rush results in his representatives findfhg themselves short of a gallop, and a less cohesive side than if the popular selec-tor-coach had been given longer warning to prepare for battle. But c all those selected are seasoned players, who take a keen pride in keeping themselves fit and ready to take the field at any time. In spite of the impressive manner in which Wellington cleaned up Canterbury with a Rugby score of 7 goals to 4, there is no reason for getting the wind up about the chances of Auckland retrieving the trophy from the windy centre of the Dominion, to which it was donated by a benevolent New Zealand Council. Our local eleven has every chance of getting even for this raw deal on Saturday next, and prove the absurdity of presenting a competitive national trophy to a province which failed to win a match last season.

A Tip-Top Team. —ln looking down Mr. Neesham’s little list one cannot fail to appreciate the all-round excellence it shows, and the absence of weakness in any department. Batry in goal is as clever a custodian as when he first appeared in the citadel of the silent service, and the Wellington marksmen will find him hard to pass. Gerrard and Simpson are a fine pair of fullbacks, with contrasting styles. The Shore player is safe, cool, and full of resource, while the Tram man wades into the fray with plenty of vigour and dash. With Tinkler, Christie, and Jones all in good form, the Auckland half-line are a solid trio in both defence and attack, and should have no difficulty in dealing with the Wellington van. In the forward line Innes is as electrical and dazzling as ever, and Spencer’s prolific crop of goals this year proves that he is a more deadly scoring factor than ever before Chalmers at outside left is a lively flyer who will keep the Wellington defenders busy stopping or chasing him, while for the inside berths Grant! Hamilton and Humphreys are right up to representative standard. If the Wellington representatives seen in action here with the Betone te3.nl are a fair sample of the trophy holders’ strength in all departments, it should not be difficult for the Aucklanders to regain the handsome ornament which should never have left here without a game for it this season.