FOOTBALL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1123, 19 October 1911, Page 12

FOOTBALL.

A matter that should be considered in th ft off-season is a better system ot arranging representative fixtures to prevent the swamping of one province with touring teams in one season (says a Dunedin writer). Otago has, for example, played no fewer than eight foreign matches on its own ground this year, and goes totally unprovided for next season. The matter, too, of the date for the inter-island match should be settled for good. The New Zealand Union made a farce of the v» b< ie husines this year bj r playing the North Island-South Island match on'October 7, when it was hopeless to expect anything approaching representative teams to line out. Unless this fixture is to be productive of good as indicating as well as may be the standard of the play and player in the two islands, of what use is it? Better to abandon it altogether than have a repetition oi. this year’s farce. There is n'i reason why the North and South Island match should not be played in June and the date agreed upon in that month to be recognised as a standing date for the inter-island fixture. There is also the matter of dragging the North Island-South Island match to Wellington at every conceivable opportunity. The geographic position of the Empire City is made too much of when it comes to allocating big fixtures. Out of the eleven matches played, Wellington had seven, Chirstchurch two, and Dunedin and Auckland one each.