GREAT MAORILAND PLAYERS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1928, Page 5

GREAT MAORILAND PLAYERS

EVOLUTION OF FOOTBALL. THE NEW ZEALAND SYSTEM. The following interesting article is taken from the Auckland Sun:— Prior to 1890, the Rugby game in New Zealand was in the pioneering stage. The visit of Stoddart’s English team in 1888 gave Maorilanders a new idea of the passing game, but that style of play was already in the process of development. The old Alhambra Club in Dunedin (one of the greatest club combinations the game has known) was laying the foundation of an epochmaking period of intensive coaching and playing combination, and in other parts of the South Island, Mcrivale in Christchurch and Britannia in Invercargill were rapidily assimilating the new style of scientific football, which paved the way for what is now called the “New Zealand system,” with for-

wards packing 2-3-2, an extra man in a roving capacity, and five-eighths supplying a connecting link between halves and threcquartcrs.

THE BAYLEYS AND GOODS. Auckland had already moved ahead on sound lines (it sent the first rep. team on tour in the history of New Zealand football) and in Wellington, Tom Ellison was experimenting with the wingforward game at the same time as the five-eighth position was invented in the South Island, while the Bayleys and the Goods were showing in Taranaki that the country districts were capable of producing high-class performers in any company'. Similarly, the famous Red Star Club at Masterton.

From 1890 onwards, football really came on to the map in New Zealand, and the subject under discussion is best considered from that period. There were players prior to that time who, if playing to-day, would be considered “hundred-per-centers.” For example, many of the old-timers contend that there was no half back before or since equal to Pat Keogh of Otago. The question: How would A. E. Cooke, most brilliant of present-day players, stop Taiaroa, the Maori half? presents in-

trigulng possibilities viewed from this angle. But for the purpose of this article, these points must be ruled out. Back play of the two periods was so radically different that no sound basis of comparison can be laid down. There is one exception, the late lamented Bob Whiteside, who died in Auckland last vear.

Changes in the game do not get away from the fact that the primary essential of a wing threequarter is the same today as in the distant seventies and eighties—to score tries—and so outstanding were the great Aucklander’s qualifications that it is safe to say that he would have been a champion at any period. For that reason, he is included in the scope of this article. THE WING • FORWARD. Consider first the player who is given a free hand on the fringe of the pack and a roving commission in the open. George -Gillett is first on the list as the greatest wing-forward New Zealand ever produced. He is in good company with Tom Ellison, the Napoleonic general of Wellingto.. football in the early nineties, and “Offside" McKenzie, ever the gay deceiver of the Rugby game, which he is ' elping along to-day in Melbourne. Dave Gallaher will always be remembered as a great footballer and a white man, who made the classic remark to a friend of the writer in relation to Gillett; “He starts where I leave off." There is no great compliment. THE GREAT BAKNY O’DOWDA.

Considering a “best ever” pack as a whole, the first name that comes to mind is C. Seeling, of Auckland. “Barney" O’Dowda, of New Plymouth (over' whom real old-timers shake their heads and say “Seeling and Brownlie were good, but this man may have been better than they”), Alec McDonald, of Otago, W. Cunningham, B. Fanning (two great locks), Tom Cross, Alec McMinn and others. Scrum work since the war has been a lost art. Forwards have lost the ability to push in the pack—the primarycause of our defeats in South Africa. There are a few forwards since the war who are given a place in the standard set here, M. Brownlie in 1924, "Moke” Bellis, I. Finlayson (not now, but three years ago), L. Williams and McMeckihg, both of Otago. FINE HALF-BACKS. ! There have been many fine half-backs in All Blacks football, none better than Fred Roberts and P. J. Burns. The former was the best New Zealand ever had. J. Mill was good.

The five-eighth position has to do with many brilliant pre-war performers, J. Hunter, ML Stead, L. Allen, “Dick” McGregor, J. Duncan and H. E. Wood. Duncan was best at rover, and the first two were outstanding for brilliancy, with Allen and McGregor very solid in all-round play. In saying that A. E. Cooke is the only post-war player in their class, it is realised that the standard set here is severe, and for that reason, criticism is inevitable. Hunter and Cooke were both essentially second-five-eighths, the best scoring position in the New Zealand system next to wing-threequarter. It is hard to say which was the better. Centre threequarters would include L. Allen and R. McGregor (both again), A. Downes and R. G. Deans. Since the war, Aitken was best (he played better in Britain). There are no others since. THE GREATEST THREE-QUARTER. George Smith, who was 33 years of age when he played for the original All Blacks, was the greatest wing-three-quarter, and there are innumerable others on a par from Nolan Fell in the past to A. C. C. Robilliard in the present. W. Wallace, the “Admirable Crichton” of Iris day, played at fullback, centre and wing-threequarter, and was a Aampion in all positions. He was probably best at fullback. Other good ones were R. B. Lusk, Arch D'Arcy, W. Hargreaves and W. Thomas. R. G. B. Sinclair (now of Hawera) was the best of late years, and a really good one.

It may be noticed that only one post-war player, M. Brownlie, is included in the New Zealar ’ selection, and he is judged on his play in 1924. The South African list includes four, van Heerden, Mostert, Kruger and van Druten, while Gerhard and Boy Morkel With exception of van Druten (1928), both played before and after the war. all these were in New Zealand with the 1921 Springboks. M’ERE A VOTE TAKEN. Naturally, such a selection as this is a most difficult one to make, and it is impossible that there would ever be complete agreement on every phase of the selection. Were a vote taken, it is probable that there would be complete

unanimity on only three New Zealand players, George Smith, Fred Roberts and Charles Seeling. Some would prefer Cunningham to Fanning, present-day men would want Cooke in place of Hunter, others might declare for “Dick”

McGregor or Bob Deans instead of Alien, Otago men would want to know how could “Jimmy” Duncan be left out, and so on ad infinitum. If another team was picked, it would be nearly as good.

Even in the South African selection, many New Zealanders would say that Zeller was a better man than van Heerden and that van Rooyen ought to be in the pack. And there yoti are! THE TRUE RUGBY YARN. But it can at least be said that such a team, .were it possible to bring ail these great players back to-dap at the height of their brilliant careers, would show us something of the true Rugby game, the pack a phalanx of crashing, smashing forwards, with every man a genuine toiler, and a line of backs which would take a power of stopping, and equally important, able to bold their own on defence.

The year 1905 represents the high tide of New Zealand Rugby, the culmination of years of scientific study of the tactics and principles of play and a system of intensive coaching, which has no counterpart in the game to-day. The present tour of South Africa shows how far the game has departed from the old standard, which is the essential basis of the selection which lias been made here.