FOOTBALL FISTICUFFS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 483, 12 October 1928, Page 6

FOOTBALL FISTICUFFS

WILD AUSTRALIAN SEASON ENDS ■ r~~ ~ i Even among the fighting ! •which has characterised Ausj tralian football in the past j season,, the English League ; ! tourists left an impression ] i behind them. Remarking on the displays of fisticuffs, a Sydney paper j has this to say: I “In New South Wales and I Queensland, Rugby League matches have been full of flying fists, especially where the Englishmen were in evidence, and the season wound up with a savage assault on a club secretary at Earl Park in the course of a junior j match. ■! . I j “Melbourne has experi- ] enced one of the most pugil- • istie seasons in its football career. In Adelaide much the same story has been re- " cited. In the semi-final at 1 Perth between South Fre- | mantle and East Perth, fighting raged throughout j the game, and ten of the 36 players required first aid. One man dislocated a shoulder, one broke a wrist, one was knocked unconscious, and others suffered such minor injuries as a sprained ankle and a broken finger. “As a Press report puts it, ‘the injured -were gradually taken off the field toward the finish.’ That ‘gradually’ is charming.”