FOOTBALL MATTERS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 26 August 1910, Page 3

FOOTBALL MATTERS.

To tho Editor,

•Sir, —T notice in your Tuesday's issue that Hopa has been suspended until the end of the season for failing to travel to I'almeirstoii North to play with the B rep. team. J am not going to take up the cudgels on behalf of Ifopa, but I am going to raise my protest at the way he has been served by the selector, because T, and! many others too, maintain that he has been unfairly dealt with, having regard to the way in wfoiniii other players have been treated. During the past few weeks oveir halt' a dozen rep. matches have, been played! among tho senior and junior reps, and quite a number of players selected to take part in the games have failed to put in au appearance. Why is Ifopa singled out especially, and why i.s ilic made the object of such bitter criticismsP It is my opinion that the selector has openly shown his dislike for this player on the touch line. Is this a case of animus? It' it is, it i.s a question that demands to be taken up by the public. L know the names or several players who have not tnlrned lip to matches, and moreover, never offered excuses for their absence, and not one of them has appeared bolore the committee of management. .Messrs Wehepeiilhana and Karauti appeared to be particularly hostile to Hopa's case, and I will put it clearly to them: Will they explain to the public why Hopa was singled out in the way he was? They urged, be it ■remembered, that a long sentence should he passed on him—and these Draconic individuals have never raised a voice over men wihose conduct undoubtedly merited public condemnation. I Van assure von it is true that whilst Mr H. J. Fowler was manager of the team a Few seasons ago, one of the plaver.s who had bad his tare paid throned, wr •i'! 1 »I'0d off tho train at Woodviile and came back to IVl.uerston North. Hero was admittedly a serious case, and yet tilie mattei was never mentioned. Hopa makes a slight error, and ho is 1 at once hauled up and subjected to what many people regard as the biassed views of certaiin persons. The facts I .have related will go to prove that Hopa has been badly treated, and that, so tar as the committee of management is concerned and the selector, there "is something rotten etc T)onmni ' k - I am. CLEAN SPORT.