“THEY DEAL IT OUT.”

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 20091, 20 August 1937, Page 4

“THEY DEAL IT OUT.”

SYDNEY RUGBY TEAMS. EIGHT FORWARDS TOE-TO-TOE. Football was complete forgotten by at least eight forwards in the recent Western Suburbs-Drummoyne Rugby Union game at Drummoyne Oval, Sydney, while they stood toe-to-toe in the centre of the lield exchanging punches, says the Sports Post. It was the sort of brawl that had it occurred in a street would have ended in arrests and assault charges. There are those who said that the second Test match between Australia and South Africa was one of the roughest games played in Sydney for many years. And it was —up to then, says E. N. Greatorex. But the Western SuburbsDrummoyne affray was better or worse (according to how you like it). Naively dismissing the argument about the “dirt” in the international match, a Rugby Union official remarked that, after all, it wasn’t club football.

Now we know what he meant. They can do better in club football. If representative sides were made up of players who can “deal it up,” an Australian team would comprise Western Suburbs and Drummoyne players. There is something wrong somewhere. Thousands go to the Rushcuttcrs Bay Stadium to see the all-in wrestling. There were only hundreds at Drummoyne Oval.