ONE FOOTBALL CODE FOR AUSTRALIA?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 204, 31 August 1935, Page 4

ONE FOOTBALL CODE FOR AUSTRALIA?

CAN THE SPORT BE NATIONALISED?

Is It possible for Australia to present a national front to international football? asks J. Mathers, in the Telegraph. As a nation, we are reputed to be football-minded. We play England in Rugby League and Rugby Union. We play England, Canada, Czechoslovakia, China, and Java in soccer. We play among ourselves in Australian rules. In each case we are dubbed “Australia.” From time to time, efforts have •been made to incorporate the finest and most spectacular moves of each code of football into one predominating game, but they have only ended in pipe dreams. Wo arc confronted with the fact that any national game of football would necessarily be waterlogged by reason of the fact that no other nation would adopt it. Again, we are told that already we have an international game of football in st cur. That is indisputable. But, a» aar as Australia is concerned, it has not the following. Official expressions of opinion were given recently by leading football representatives. Their views should provoke some controversy. Mr. W. W. Hill, chairman of the N.SAV. Rugby Union, and a representative on the Imperial Football Conference that is to be held in London at the end of this year, regards the international aspect broadly. “The more people playing football the better, no matter the code. Each cede can take care of itself with credit to Australia. It is better from a national point of view that there should be several codes of football. One code would crowd the players out. After all, football is only a game.” Australian Rugby League teams to England that keeps the Northern Union game in England alive proves that any attempt to nationalise out football should be well worth consid j ciing.” The soccer code is more or less independent, because cf the fact that soccer is already established as an international code. Its strongholds are England, Scotland, Italy, Austria. Czechoslovakia, Spain, France, Ger many, and, to a growing extent, Australia. Altogether 89 nations play soccer. “We desire to improve our standard cf play,” remarked Mr. Wai Rushton, secretary of the N.SAV. State Soccer League, “aud already we have had international games with England, Canada, Czechoslovakia, China, and Java. Although we are on friendly terms with other codes, we cannot see any reason for creating a national code of football when one already exists. “The strength of soever is repealed,” he continued, “when you look at the game in Italy. year Italy won the world’s cup in Rome, but in a game at the Arsenal ground in the same year, England defeated Italy by 3 points to 2, which was the closest-con tested game ever played among the nations.” Those, then, are the various official points of view of representatives of the different codes. They seem to indicate that one day Australia will present a united front to the world in football. *

But the secretary of lhe N.S.W. Rugby League, Mr. H. R. Miller, considers that it is possible to present a national front in football if the problem is approached on the basis of arbitration. “Although no other code of football has made the amazing progress in such a short while as Rugby League,” remarks Mr. Miller, “1 think there should be some co-ordinated effort to produce a type of football that would have an immense appeal in other parts cf the world. Just as the seeds of the Northern Union were sown in New ►South Wales in 1908, so it is possible to sow the seeds of a revised game in England, and create a definitely international flavour in football. “But the matter must be approached in the spirit of compromise. For example, the high-marking of Australian rules should be acceptable to Rugby League football, just as tackling should be acceptable to Australian rules. “Trior to the war,” he continued, “we had a conference with the tralian Rufes authorities, and it was decided to play trial games. The war interrupted proceedings, and nothing constructive has been done since. “I suggest,” added Mr. Miller, “that the Australian rules should invite the Rugby League to play a match before a final in Melbourne, and that the League should invite the Australian rules to play a game before a match between England and Australia next year. Each game would then be seen at its best.”