League Rugby

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1067, 3 September 1930, Page 13

League Rugby

Notes and Comment.

Ponsonby's Championship f bv its win over a colourless Devonjf’ ft team on Saturday, Ponsonby has I published an unassailable lead in the ■hampionship race. With only one more match to go. it cannot be leaded off. H . ls likely that the management committee of the Auckland Rug'by League fij at its meeting this evening, will decide Ht<> close down on the championship ’ series and commence the Roope Rooster Biock-out on Saturday next Th» Smile of Victory B No one was more pleased when PonsonbV asserted its superiority in the 1 mLLJM ing the season lias . vtr. .fj. D. Cul pan had his faith in the ! m a m sorely tried when it continued week after week to sail very close to the I * * * Mwt Consistent Team Nevertheless, taken over the thirteen matches that have been played, Pon- . oflby has been the most consistent ?am. It has had more wins and fewer isses than any other team, having layed 13 matehes, won 11, lost two. irawn none, scored a total of 190 points 'nd had 138 points scored against it, 3 :o pile up 22 points op the champion- ■\ hip table —six more than the next earns on the list. Says one Auckland critic on the Ponsonby - Devonport game on Saturday: ‘‘They (Ponsonby) were the poorest team that has ever won a championship.’' .How .does .this square with the fact that last season Ponsonby won the grade with a team practically identical with this season’s side? Who is Runner-up? k «:ity and Devonport are level on the st. in second place, with 16 championhip points each. Thus, unless there s a play-off, they will have to be racketed as runHys-up for the championship. In the event of Ponsonby vinnifig the Roope Rooster contest (a >ery unlikely outcome judging by the past history of the series), City and Devonport will have to play off to deide who shall meet Ponsonby in the hampion of champions match. However, such speculation can be well left till the Uluope Rooster is over. V PRESS AND THE “KIWIS” With reference to the item which appeared in the official organ of the Auckland Rugby League on Saturday, explaining why more was not heard in New Zealand of the “Kiwis” during the tour of Australia, it should be pointed out that the “New Zealand Press Representative,” mentioned in the paragraph, was in no sense a representative of the Press of Auckland or of New Zealand as a whole. The complaint about a paucity of news of the team did not apply to THE SUN, which made its own arrangements, and every week its special correspondent with the • touring team supplied first hand information of the cfofngs of the team before ary Auckland newspaper. Roop* Rooster Draw Entries for the Ruopo Rooster contest close this evening with the management committee of the Auckland kugby League, and if the League decides to start the competition on Saturuay, the draw for the first round will be made tonight. * « * f up ’ you ox »” exhorted one "the terrace critics on Saturday, ,"*. a burly Otahuhu player was writhing in agony on the ground as the result of an injury. But hillside critics are always noted for their sympathy and moderate expressions of opinion. * * * Devonport’* Sorry Showing lamentable lapse of the Shore ? J b , aturda >-’ was one of the un(Vrff i k a PP eni ngs of the afternoon. Shore was a little below its I thi* 1)111 *° compensate f Qr T 6 ew Zealand representative, was back. The side had amt! «J n *J^ mount of bad luck, b ut in iMo n °r this should have done better. Pan, i often that spectators at Carlaw ieave the ground altogether ihft nol after half-time, but that was e case on Saturday. • * * * nn °uncement the official EH 1 of the Auckland Rugby pnf*?i Ue n ? ac^e that Delgrossc had ' played for Auckland against the nlL;* because he did not wish to *** ,n the. position for which he « v jj selected was responsible, Qf ■•"tly. for some harsh heckling *n« Pony skipper on Saturday. ot s“B* nr '«* Were Clese Was one really disappointing uo , * urday * the other three made j particnlnVi to a i certain extent by being 'traw anU 13 l L close - ° ne ended in a victoiw 1 °tber two in one-point Kingsland’s defeat of City | '.vaa if,, altogether unexpected when it 1 WauM \ rned that the Rovers’ side 1 TW e J"’ 6 well below full strength. ftiuLn • Aa aot 80 uiuch surprise at f r 6 8 win over Richmond, for the ■ iilwiva i racecourse suburb are liard co crack on their own c * * * Ha? B * ck at Half ‘^turrtf n did not for Marist on as a result of an injury in the Auckland match, and Cronin. former diarist half, took his place behind the scrum. Other 1“ Ip prominent Marist v *9s Pig men who were ni ‘ssing were Jim ft NftA O’Brien and Brady,. J> JflS The latter was iflw. Wm also recovering Iv nWsB from injuries in A . "W- .*iigg the representative T''' ~VWTwI ame - H. Brisbane was not fit , Cronin to take the field J the ~ on Saturday, but :y I* nJi® J t * le . flrKt Roope Rooster the P K y . e<l D' u ho P es to have got V lne lttst effects of the Australian W. * , ••‘rku? 1 ’ 1 ®.!" Great Form ! afo. in’t.l! , a trussed-up injured I t u® «ide-iin® d team. Newton, from I S'«eiiu" 6 „ f on Saturday, and had Th <ira '‘ v * seeing it force Marist si ® at orda°v tke ed 'and-\Vhlto team NtX waa undoubtedly E. J h’’ u e,„je ‘ ac ® 1 oming over from the b?* shown ?? rller m the season, he to greater advantage week i £& that* 1 !!. mu ® c l e s ache and joints 1 B ftOCATmx- tlmr for ELLIMAN’S f cl “* vnd .?- N ' Sprains, strains, na Pains disappear.—7.

j A Prolific Boot Certainly Dufty’s tour in Australia lias not detracted from his prowess s a powerful kick, Ellerslie must attrli > i^the II Ri t | 0f th j hon °urs of its success "J Richmond game to the presence of this custodian last Saturday. Withfence 11 ir, S °v l i ici support and reliable detence in the rearguard, the visiting team would undoubtedly have won th? * * * A Richmond Pacemaker Mincham, as centre threequarter was ho most industrious worker amonj | the Richmond teamsters in the game Ellerslie. He m&MkS was always to he found in the thick[jaMgsjM est of the struggle and his strenuous /Wsm activities were a continual source of T annoyance to the j home team. Nor is 18m his klelti ng' to be entirely overlooked. VVlienever a sliot at goal looked T*—promising, MinMincham cliam was ready to << ... „„ , take a chance, and attenl Pts (lid occasionally fall no? Ji f expectations, it was certainly part thr ° USh lack ° £ enter P r i s e on his The Scottish Brigade Four Macs played in the Otahuhu team which won the senior B grade Championship on Saturday by defeating Point Chevalier—MacLaren, MacPherson, MacMillan and Mac Lean. ISSUE IS CLEAR-CUT IMPROVING STANDARD OF LEAGUE^GAME PROFESSIONAL V. AMATEUR Although the conference of members of the management committee of the Auckland Rugby League and the Council of the New Zealand Rugby League last Thursday evening emphatically declared itself against professionalism, the recommendations it has made if carried into effect, mean that sooner or later the game will be professional. This is not an exaggeration of tl|e position. It is merely a statement of { llie inevitable. League administrators would, do well to ponder deeply and keenly the recommendations which Have been made before they are either adopted or rejected. One of the recommendations is that the Auckland Rugby League should grant its senior teams a certain percentage of the gate takings at Carlaw Park week by week. No decision has yet been made as to what this percentage is to be but it lias been suggested that it should be 2p per cent. Now-, the average gate takings a Saturday at Carlaw Park over the past few years have been about A) 150, so that the six senior clubs would divide approximately £3O a week among themselves in proportion to their relative drawing powers from the public view point. THE LOGICAL OUTCOME Thus the average amount to be received by each club under the present scheme of things would be £ 5 a week, which obviously is not sufficient to make out-and-out professionalism possible. But here is where the significance of the recommendation comes in. The time is coming when the gate takings each week at Carlaw Park will be doubled and perhaps trebled, in which extreme the average received by each club weekly would be £ls. That this will be so, is the hope of the administrators who are trying to liven up the standard of the game and so nake in the shekels at Carlaw Park.

Of course, it would take years, but there is little surer than that it will come. The best team might draw as much as £3O a week, and it is obvious that with such a sum at its disposal all sorts of practices, while not professiona I ism pure and simple, could creep in and probably have a worse effect on the game than professionalism itself. That this is so is proved by the position in Australia, where the clubs are granted percentages of the gates. It is openly admitted that the clubs in turn grant players certain sums for playing the game or to induce them to play the game. STRAIGHT-OUT ISSUE The issue is a straight-out one. Should the game continue as in the past as an amateur one, or should it be converted into a professional one? The main issue should not be allowed to be clouded by side issues such as the granting of percentages of the gate to clubs in the belief that this will be the happy medium. The authorities should say right out whether or not they want professionalism. There is some support for the belief that professionalism woud be both possible and of benefit to the game in Auckland, at leas't. On the other hand, however, there is the plain fact that in the past the game has been brought up into line with the standard of the very best in the world by pure, unadulterated amateurism, and a confession that the same cannot be done again means one or other of two things—either that there has been a remarkable degeneration in the standai'd of the players themselves, or that there is something radically wrong on the administrative side of the game. Which it is, could well be decided by those who have been intimately Connected with the game since its foundation in Auckland 21 years ago.