FOOTBALL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3406, 9 August 1913, Page 9

FOOTBALL.

(By “Longpot.”) To-day’s Match at Auckland. It is certain that the main theme of conversation of the football community of the Bay to-day will be the Ranfurly Shield match at Auckland. A great deal of speculation has been done in regard to the chances our representatives have in defeating the redoubtable Auckland team and these chances have generally been set down as nil. But, on the other hand, there are a few who have had special opportunities of studying the displays of the Auckland team and who are not entirely unacquainted with Poverty Bay football who venture the opinion that it all defends on whether our ba r -ks are able to get possession of the ball. They are agreed that the Auckland pack is an exceptionally strong one and doubt the ability of the Poverty Bay scrummagers to withstand their fierce onslaughts. The Wellington team which was recently defeated by the northerners had a fine pack but they were dwarfed by comparison with the Auckland men. In regards to our own forwards tjiey are a fairly lumpy lot and most of them are in fine fettle, so they should be able to hold the Aucklanders, though it is not ekpected that they will surpass them. With regard to the backs it is conceded that the Poverty Bay men are superior to the Aucklanders both in attack and defence. Certainly we have an exceptionally strong attacking side, so strong in fact that the entire rear division must be called a brilliant department, but some of the units are not strong in defence. Some of them rely on their a runty to turn defence into attack as their chief asset, but whether it will he a marketable commodity if the forward division goes to pieces in. front of the onslaughts of the heavy and fast Aucklanders is a debatable point. Personally, lam afraid it will lie no good. But I have watched the play of the local forwards this season very closely and I think that they will not ho far behind their opponents at the end of the game. Consequently with the preponderance of superiority in the rear division in Poverty Bay’s ravor which should more than make up the deficiency in tho forwards (if there is one) our representatives should have the pleasure and honor of carrying back with them from the northern city the coveted Ranfurly Shield.

Football Finance. Two interesting financial statements have just been issued in England—one the balance sheet of the Rugby Union, the other, the statement of accounts of the Football Association. The Rugby Union shows on the match account » profit of £7,045. From the South African’s tour • the

union dreAV profits amounting to £3,312. Matches betAveen England and Scotland produced £3,126. All told, the liabilities of the union amounted to £3,172, and, outside the great asset of Twickenham Ground, it has a cash credit balance of £3,661. The cash account of the Football Association discloses a turnover amounting to no less than £25,838 3s 6d. The List two stages of the Oup ties produced £ii,636 11s 2d, the final tie at Crystal Palace yielding (gross) £6,134 9s Bd. The international match at Chelsea betAveen England and Scotland turned in a gate of £3,387 11s 6d, hut England v. Wales, at Bristol, only realised £393. Among the items of expenditure were £642 on the Stockholm games, and £1,514 expenses of council and consultative committees. The assets shoAV £6,718 invested, and £15,012 at the bank. Of this last sum, £10,663 belongs to the dubs which participated in the semi-final ties of the S'. A. Cup and the Amateur Cup. Payments made in connection Avith the semi-final and final Cup ties ran to £933, and for international matches £1*470-

NOTES. Amateurism in football i-s not by any means dead in Hawke’s Bay, and this fact was strikingly illustrated when recently the players subscribed over £7O in three weeks in order to send a representative team on tour. • * * Replying to a correspondent concerning the relative merits of the New Zealand and South African forwards, Cynic, of the “Sydney Referee,” states that New Zealand forwards lead the world, the success of the South African forwards in 1912 notwithstanding. The New Zealand forward is not only built as perfectly for the work as is possible, but he is always a footballer to the marrow bone. The average New Zealand representative forward is a superior player to the average International forward wo have seen in Australia. The “A 11Black” forwards were not outstanding among those of New Zealand representative teams, yet they outplayed practically everything they faced in the Old World. New Zealand is still producing great forwards; but I arn not so sure she is still producing the great back. Australian back 2>lay—and here, of course, I include the two Rugbys—is now as good as that of New Zealand or any other country ever was. It is not so much the gathering together of a bunch of stars as the power of the men to combine. It is a of the Welsh success in back play, with the important difference that the Australian gives greater scope to his individualism than the Welshman. The Wellington correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian,” in the course of a. lengthy article on football in the Dominion, says inter alia: “Footballers are footballers in New Zealand ; they live for football, and to them there is only ono season, ai d that is the football season. People in the Old Country can hardly realise what Rugby football is in New Zealand—how large it bulks in the national life, how widely it is played and followed. ft is truly the national game ofi the Dominin; ir completely eclipses in its importance any other type of sport, unless it be horse-rac-ing; it certainly overshadows in the eyes of the average man the doings of Parliament, which sits through the hitter paid of ihe football season, riven the remote hush townships, with their population of bush-follers and lumbermen, have their clubs, which travel many miles to meet the representatives of similar townships in a friendly game. One of the first things done in a hush settlement is to clear a space of logs and stumps to make a football ground; sometimes the clearing is not complete before the game starts, and players have a perilous time among the stumps. But. footballers here are a hardy lot of men, as the last Anglo-Welsh team of visitors found to their annoyance. The Englishmen complained of rough play, but it is not. intentionally rough; it ‘s simply the custom of the country. There is a maxim, “In football no beg pardons,” universally observed in New Zealand. A man is not supposed to play ihe game unless he can stand hard knocks.