LEAGUE FOOTBALL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1533, 31 August 1912, Page 12

LEAGUE FOOTBALL.

[B* "Fleetfoot."! THE SUNLIT DAY AT NEWTOWN. A Good Man Named Hazlitt, "Claimed to lie the best full-back in the world."—This is how llio Now South Wales J/?nguo authorities introduced Hallett to (ho New Zealand football public. -Probably before Hallett leave, the.-e shores it will be admitted that he lias pood claim to (ho title, which, it is understood, the English payers first gave him. lie certainly Rave us a glimpse of his worth last Saturday and yet his fellow members of the touring team say that ho was not by any means at his best. His line-kicking, fielding, and tackling were all brilliant, ami be has brought the line-kicking down to a very fino science. There are, however, two branches of the play in which ho is said to excel, but in which we did not see him on Saturday last—goal-kicking from tho field, and setting his three-quarters going with passing. Before the tour closes he is sure to bo seen in some brilliant work, provided the grounds are good as they should bo at this time of tho year. Another Person Named Deane, Deane, ono of the New South Wales centre-three-quarters, made some wonderful zig-zag runs against Wellington last Saturday, but appeared to be satisfied to leavo all the scoring to his wing-three-quarters once the openings were made. What more should a ccntre do? Some one has suggested that lie was off colour. This makes ono imagine what tho Wellington men would have done if Deane had been "on colour." Those Nimble Blue Forwards. Mention has previously been made of tho scoring ability of the visiting wing-three-quarters—Frawley and Broomham —and of the crisp passing of all of the backs. What was perhaps the most striking feature of tho whole play was tho nimbleness of the forwards. Sullivan, Jl'Cuo, Haddocks, and Cummins were very active in the passing Tushes and when over an opening presented itself, they proved themselves quite fleet of foot. In general knowledge of the League game they were of course more advanced than tho Wellington pack. The latter, however, made a brave show as the advance guard of a poor lot of backs. The Match a Decided Success, As an example of the possibilities of the Northern Union game, last Saturday's match filled the Bill remarkably well, but as an interesting contest for supremacy between two teams of different countries it might be termed a failure. The New South Wales players have come across the water to give the New Zealand, football public an opportunity ot judging if tho Northern Union code tl l* 63 ' ( ' res3 13 worthy of support. It will be pretty generally admitted that the opening of the tour was about tho best possible opening to such a {our. Amusing Story Going the Rounds. An amusing story is going the rounds in connection with the League match. It is related that a prominent Bugby Union official, who was being bantered about the poor attendanoe at Athletic Park last Saturday afternoon, ventured the suggestion that the thousands of people, who were at Newtown Park, would .be disgusted with the visiting team as word had just reached him that tho Wellington .team (in his opinion a very poor one) was leading by 13 points to li. It'is not related what the same official said after the match.