Football Gossip

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 21, 19 August 1893, Page 9

Football Gossip

TRIAL MATCHES. [By Umpire.] The first of the above came off on Wednesday, and resulted in a win for the Maroons by 8 points to nil —a potted goal by Bain and two tries secured by Ashcroft and G. Ramsay making up the score. For the first twenty minutes the colours had only fourteen men to the others’ sixteen. This should have been altered by the match committee, as the Maroons had things pretty well their own way until Grenfell turned up, which made a difference. The game was very poor —no combination among the forwards and less among the backs — this refers to both sides. At the start the ball was fairly dry, but shortly after the second spell started, in which the Colours got in some very fair dribbling rushes, a heavy shower came on, and play was stopped. The game was essentially a forward one, but the committee will not be much nearer a decision than before the game, as, with the exception of Heave and Lock, none of the forwards played anything at all. Tapper was about the best back on the ground, and put in some very neat work. Grenfell made a very safe full back, and should go very near gaining interprovincial honours in that position . Cuff had a bit the best of McKay behind the scrum, but both seemed to be hampered greatly by the erratic heeling out of their forwards. Mr. J. E. Taylor makes a quick and efficent referee. It was quite a treat to hear the whistle blown by such a lusty pair of lungs as he possesses. I think the match committee made a mistake in playing- the mixed teams on Wednesday. Our men want practice together, as combination is everything, and, as there are very few trials, why not play our men as much together as possible ? Of course any player can shine when his team is playing a winning game, but I do not think it is right to put men in the probables who haven’t any possible chance on their season’s play of getting into the representanive team. It spoils the combination of the other men, and means that when the team is picked after the last trial there are some in it who perhaps have never been in the pack before, therefore we cannot expect to have the combination in our representatives that is required for them to have any show against Otago or Canterbury. Let the committee pick what they think is the best team and only pick fifteen, then try and keep those men as much together as possible. Of course there must be some changes during- the trials, but let us have as few as possible, and the fewer there are the better chance we will have in the interproviucial matches.