FOOTBALL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1210, 19 August 1911, Page 12

FOOTBALL.

. . ——+_i — RUUBY. ■ MERELY PLAIN DEALING. [By AmsTOBULUs.] •The Maoris' Thrashing. Tho beating which tho Maori touring team received from a Wellington fifteen ■on Wednesday was tho result of tho visiti.ing management putting in a team of ■ good footballers, who, as a team, played bad football. There is some fine material in tho Maori company, but the lack of .system was deplorable. ■ It was really .» pity to pee such fine clay so badly moulded. It made one ill to see the brilliant Kaipara. wasted, and other good men i failing to get results. There was no de- ;. ceit whatever about their play. In sheer ' dash and "ginger" several of the Maori backs excelled, but when it became evident that, that ammunition alone wasn't going to batter down the Wellington defence, there should havo been other tactics to resort to. There were none, and ; tlie visitors consequently failed to put iip a score. Wellington, on the other hand, had various tricks in .the bag, and nearly all ■ their scores came from strategy —simple, and ordinary enough, but effective all the same. The chief things about tho Jlaori forwards were their ■height and their activity. One can hardly say that they absolutely petered out through lack of condition, or . owing to their great bulk, but it is a fact that the lighter Wellington pack were holding . them better at the end of the game than at the start. Faded Hopes, Big things were expected of the Maoris by some, and the majority expected to see a close game. Before half- time, however, | it was ■ clear that Wellington was going I to win. The Maoris in the .stand were : saying that their men were good finishers,and had a habit of wiping out deficits in the second spell, but even those assurances were not enough to bring back the hopes that had faded—the l hopes of a stirring game. With Hall, Sellare, and Cunningham included, tho team will be better, but even then the neglect of its 'education does not want to be persisted in. On Men Who Shirk. Tho Wellington team was not looked upon as a very strong: one, because it was clear that a considerably stronger fifteen could have been selected. Still there will not bo many alterations to make the real representative team. The forwards havo yet to be strengthened before the best is produced. There were weak backs playing on Wednesday, .and'they should get their desserts in due course. Tilyavd was tho man whose play deserves to be particularly remembered. "Up till Wednesday the selectors could hardly be blamed for giving him a try-out, but now ho must start afresh and obliterate the memory of a game that stands to his discredit. Next time tho selectors want to try one of tho halves who aro mentioned amon» those- whose claim comes .' only second "to that of V. Roberts, they may give 'Gallagher, the Southern half, a chance. To say tho least, it would surprise a good many if Gallagher emulated Tilyard in-.declining to "go down to forward rushes. Tilyard's position was a nasty one, for the Herculean Natives were simply heaving the Wirtfes about as they liked, and Tilyavd was the smallest of. the Whites;,;,-, However, wb don't want a half-back whb can't stop forward rushes;--. Moreover,.)we don't want people, to accept a position* , ln a team and thenfail to do the work entailed—to take whatever comes their way. A man knows tho possibilities before he goes on to the .. field, and tho fact that he turns out is an assurance ;that he is hot going to let his city dov.-n by shirking his duty. The 'last two games have shown the selectors that so far as the second strings go, E. Roberts is a better half-back' than Tilyard. and it is something worth knowing to know who to call upon in a case of emergency. Another Wellingtonian 1 whose defence was displeasing was Ramsden. At full-back, M'Leod, who simply played there as a stop-gap, was not a success. J. Ryan was very solid all round, Mitchinson was the neatest and cleverest of all tho backs. Cook was brilliant, and Daly was good. If Anything is Going to Turn the Public— If anything is going to turn the public away from football in Wellington it is tho putting on of poor representative, fixtures, such as or.« or two of thosa which : the public have, been asked to patronise this season. Without that fection of tho public that patronise, club football consistently during tho season the Wellington' Rugby Union could not carry on; that is plain. And it is (to say the least of it) eery bad business (football has become a "business" nowadays) to ask the union's patrons to pay an extra fee to see a re•presentativo fixture, and thon put on such & match as the North v. South Country match, which tho majority of the spectators did not caro to sit out till the finish. It may bo contended that tli2 Wellington Rugby Union is not altogether refcsponsiblc for fhe bill of fare provided, as ;thc New Zealand Union, which lent the 'local body a few hundred pounds, • has an agreement by which they can demand .Athletic Park on any occasion during tho season. Well, if the Npw Zealand Union aro going to make such use. of the agreement, as has been made recently, tho sooner tho local body repays that loan and cancels tho agreement tho better it will be for all concerned. The Colleges at Play. The annual meeting of the Wellington and St. Patrick's. Colleges at the AthIttie Park last Saturday wiis the star item of tho day, and it provided bright, intelligent football, which inade the representatives of the North and South Island country teams, who followed tho boys, like to many lumborin;? buses alongside spick and s]tin motor-cars. The St. Patrick's forwards were a more bulky-lookiu? set than their opponents, and at the out-st they had decidedly tho best of tlje deal. Wlion the Wellington bucks Rot to work, however, there was no stopping them, and spectators were treated to an. exhibition of football that has niadtt Rugby the national pastime. It was a. real treat to see these lads handle the ball. The St. Patricks' back?, with tho exception of M'Carthy, a bright little halfback, and Spillane and Fuller, threequarters, were a very inferior combination. The kicking of the Wellington College boys was worthy of the senior grade. A Weird War-cry. It has become the custom of touring teams to cultivate a war-cry, and it has been left to (he Australasian J>aguo team ■ to evolve the most weird thins in words yet discovered. Jt runs as under:— Murr-ah-wuh gco-le-ah bar-ah-gid-ce ngea-aiin-ee, Will-ah-virr-ah burr-an-gid-ee, Burx-an-dah curr-an-dill-ce, Drou-ooal-00-lee ah coo-mul-lah-gid-ee. 800 thfl-ngca-ann-ah-man, coo-mul-lah-ngoon-gul, Tull-ah-wo,e-ar dhit-ak-null-sce wrail-wirr-ee niig-gun-num, Tco-rall-dhill-ee wull-un-do-wan-gan, Coj-mull-KCC-vvuntHjun mir-tih-iMio-gaU-mull-ah-gah-lali, Narr-an-coh-ngea-m urr-00-1 i n-whoo. What it means is as follows:— Wo can jump like the kangaroo, . Ply like tho wild duck, Cling like tho native bear, Fight like the snake, We cowc to fight l you, For hoi-our and glory, no bad feeling. The bast man to win. Wo go hard at you, liny bo to down you. When fight is over, We part best of friends. "W.G.8." (Balmain) writes to' tho "Referee-":—"Who said Balmain weren't rough? ttcro is an extract from an essay on 'The Tiger,' written by. an cight-vcar-old boy at one of tho local schools: --'Tho tiger has padded feet, so that ho can eteal softly upon his prey. . . .Tho tigor is like, the Bahnain footbailors, because lio has black and yellow jtri[«a. Tie is very wild, but not.go. .wild as the Balniain footballers.' "