“Footbrawl”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 671, 24 May 1929, Page 13

“Footbrawl”

RIOT AT MELBOURNE POLICE WIELD BATONS A vicious brawl, in which women were punched and men were kicked — one suffering a. bad gash in the face —occurred at the end of the FitzroyNorth Melbourne football match, at Fitzroy. last Saturday week. Four arrests were made. The police, although they admit that there was heated partisanship among the barrackers, do not associate the brawl with football excitement. One story they have been told is that a vile accusation was made against a woman barracker by a young man, and that she attacked him. He met her attack and punched her mercilessly. As she, stunned by the attack, swayed over a small fence encircling the arena, fights followed among the crowd, and in a few minutes about 50 groups, including young women, were punching and kicking indiscriminately. Three police who streaked through the arena from the other end of the

ground were lorced to wield tlieir batons vigorously. The fighting groups surged out on to the roadway, where the police and combatants were surrounded by several thousand football spectators, who became hostile to the police, and boohooed and jeered. Batons were swung to ward off menacing approaches by the crowd, and several men were struck. One man was felled. The arrival of reinforcements and plain-clothes police relieved an ugly position for the struggling constables. One of the men .arrested is alleged to have punched a constable violently in the face on the way to the police station.