ASSOCIATION

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 127, 31 May 1919, Page 12

ASSOCIATION

(By "Vanguard.")

A keen follower of the soccer game writes as follows : "Dear 'Vanguard,' in your interesting notes of last' Saturday, you remarked upon the presence of three Fitzgeralds in the Marist senior team as being unique in your experience. Probably the stress of war is the.cause of your forgetting the three Lowe brothers in the Diamond team of 1912. Then some years previous there were the four Hays playing for tho Diamond juniors." INSTITUTE v. MARIST. The Institute Club gained a further success last Saturday by beating the Marißt Old Boys by two goals to one | on the Association Park. There was a I keen wind hlowing, and as Marist won the toss, it was expected that several goals would come their way, but this was not to be, owing somewhat to the inability of the wing forwards to centre the hall. This was specially noticeable I on the left wing. Time after time the ball would he sent out to Albert Lowe, who certainly took it down the field, but, dilly-dallying with it on many occasions, ■ allowed a couple of the fast Institute players to rob him of it. A wing player ! hns no business to hang on to the ball; I his work is to draw the defence-on to him, and to then centre the ball without trying any fancy tricks What a different tab there was to tell in watching the right wing of. the Institute. . Time after time this player—-"Jim-my" Smith—received the ball, and, making some pretty dribbles, never held on to it a minute longer than was necessary. I His centres were splendid, and his corner kicking more so, and as a player ho reminded me more of "Billy" Mawson, the old Wellington representative player of bygone days, than of any other player I have seen. Without a doubt this yoiTth_ has a future before him as an Association player, and cannot be left out of consideration for any rep team required this season. The great pity is that" he may receive his marching orders ! any day, as he is on tho road for trans-I fer to another town.. 'i Another player that I was particularly impressed with was Maurice M'Elligott, of the Marist Club, who played a very fine game, more ,so in the second spoil, when, matters were not going too | wisll for his team. His position in'this spoil was hard to understand, however, as he appeared to be playing as an extra half-back., This may have been done to instructions, but if so it was not good policy, as Marist were a couple of goals to the bad, and nothing was to be gained : by playing a somewhat, defensive game. ; W. Thomas, the skipper of the Thorndon fourth-class team last season, was another player to impress one, and in a year, or two should be really first-class. Very', keen, ha worked hard, and shot for goal on many occasions..' He must, however,'remember that it is good policy to drop the ball just in front of his for-, wards, and' the "hard heads'" of the team should impress this point upon, him. . .

The pick of the.backs were E. Fitzgerald for Marist and. W. Wanden for Institute, although. Bell also played well. AH three players, are young, and with judicious coaching should be a tower of strength to their teams later on. As a matter of fact, at least one of the players has more than a chance of gaining a place in the rep. team, which will be required on the 3rd June. \.

Both goalies played well, but Hayes played with the worst of.the luck against him, as he had. very little chance of saving the two goals scored. -The Institute players are greatly* enamoured with the play of Tarrant, and he is certainly good. Ho is another player with, a promising future, but experts are speaking highly of the play shown by his older opponent between the sticks; Arthur Webster, of the Diamonds, and M. -Porteous of Petonb.

Of the rest of the players who displayed good form, Harold Marshall showed up, and worked" very hard in the centre for Marist, and A. Houston and Porterdid likewise for Institute. D. Halley also did very well, but for a wing player his centring of the ball was bad, and gave one the impression that he was try-, ing to score without trusting to his in; side men to give the finishing touch to the ball.

The game was very cleanly contested, and a word of praise is due to the referee, Mr. V Astill, for his handling of the match. , \

Although V.M.C.A. defeated Porirua by two goals, and displayed much the best football, the local team with a bit of luck may have snatched at least a point fiom them. Of the six goals scored in the match, only two were in the nature of good, clea-i goals, the other four being the result of faulty play on the part of the defenders. It would have been very hard if V.M.'s had not got the two points, as they were immeasurably the better team. The tackling of the home team was distinctly good,"'consequently V.M.C.A. did not get much opportunity to show their usual combination. Baker, in the role of fullback, gave a good display, and he and Goad generally proved too much for their opponents, and did not give their goalie, Sinclair much to do. The three halves weie all good men, particularly Jarmy, who was head and. shoulders, in more senses than one, above the others. BalUrd was very good in the forwards, but tried to do too much. There is no question as to his ability, but it is a pity that such an experienced player-should wander so much. It is such a bad example to younger players. The two Smiths, one on each wing, played a correct gaate, particularly K. Smith, although his shots at goal wero rather erratic.

The Porirua men played much better than they did the previous week, although their shooting was painfully weak. On several occasions quick shots could hardly have missed being affective, but instead the .ball was steadied, and the chance was lost. It is all right for a forward to work, the ball to his favourite position and taking his time, if the other fellow will allow him, but usually the opposition is' not so compl-' cent. Wallis met with an injury to his knee early in the second half, and Mungavin had' extra work thrust on him, and, generally speaking, they both did well. The three halves were purely defensive and lacked hard and strong. They badly need coaching, and had a, good example of how a half should play by watching Jarmy. He never forgot* he had forwards in front of him, and when possible he gave them the ball. Eastwood, in the front line, was a great toiler, and the goal ho scored was well merited. The other forwards all played well in the field, but, as I said before, they were weak in front of goal. RANDOM NOTES. Ives, the V.M.C.A. full-back, formerly of Corinthians, did' not turn out on Saturday, and it is rumoured that he intends to relinquish the game. If this is so, it is a pity,, as he is still too good a playjfer to become a "banker." It is to be hoped that'better counsels will prevail. ' "■■'. While watching.the Y.M.C.A.-Porirua match last1 Saturday, I noticed. three noted Porirua players looking on, namely, Cross, Daily, and Tyer. These men have a lot of football in them yet, and would easily find a place in any team in .Wellington. With Porirua not doinff

so well, they should be prevailed uponl to lend a hand. J W. Skinner, the popular Hospital andl Wellington representative player, is atji present in Wellington on 'cave from thej Auckland Hospital. l*l