SOCCER SIDELIGHTS PASSING NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1078, 16 September 1930, Page 13

SOCCER SIDELIGHTS PASSING NOTES

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PERSEUS.)

The Last Lap.—After the representative match on Saturday the game now 'enters its last phase for the season, and about four more Saturdays should see the end. There are two rounds of the Falcon Cup and alsp two rounds of the Senior Cup to. play off yet, and with practically the same clubs still surviving in both knockout contests the ties will take four Saturdays, unless the night games are revived to speed up the drop of the final curtain. Many of the players are interested in summer sports, and will not be sorry when the order to pack ux> their Soccer gear is given.

The Final Rep. Game.—The season has only yielded one real representative match, and the game suffers from want of outside attractions. There was a preliminary canter with the a*ivy on King’s Birthday which was disappointing, and the Sbutli Auckland side was not strong , enough to Stand pp to a semi-representative Auckland team on Saturday. To the best of the writer’s knowledge the Waikato lads .have never yet collected Auckland’s scalp, although they put up some sterling tussles in the old Brown Shield days, and if Saturday’s visiting team was the ' southern area’s full strength, the game would appear to have slipped a bit there as it has in the City, and South Auckland will need to strengthen up a lot to justify its claim to take part in major provincial games for the F.A. trophy. The writer lias seen Hnntly and Pukemiro teams play better Soccer in hard Chatham Cup fights at Huntly than the southern reps, showed us on Saturday. Auckland’s Future Reps.—Most interest on Saturday was centred in the showing of the debutantes in the Auckland team, and watching how they shaped with a stiffening of the old reps, blended in. McLeay’s play those who had only seen him in club games, and it. was no surprise to learn he had been given a trial in the reserves of the famous Tottenham liotspurs Club. If anything happens to Harry Spencer there would be no need to worry, as Mc-Leay knows his way to goal, even with his back toward it. McMillan and Williamson worked hard in the inside berths, but have not yet the finished touch of ilislop and Dunsmore. Chapman was in the thick of it, too, at centre-half, and was a. glutton for work. In fact he would bo more effective there if lie did less work, and took the job raoro deliberately. The Y.M. colt has a. tendency to dash in and blaze away on the "chance it” idea, when cool and steady judgment is needed to decide the placing of the ball for a scoring thrust. But Auckland has plenty of coming players, who would quickly improve if they were playing more often with and against better players. Improving the Game.—Recent comments on the l'alling-off here in the standard of. play und dwindling of public interest, have caused those interested in the game to consider the whole outlook, and a reorientation of the code is quite a likely happening between now and the start of next season. That the position of the game is serious, if not alarming, is fully recognised by those who have studied it. The diagnosis of the ills Soccer is suffering from is not difficult, though experts differ on some minor points. The main problem is to find the remedy and avoid a similar degeneration in the future. Personal recriminations or attacks on individuals serve no constructive purpose; those who have had control have been

elected and re-elected by the players through their clubs, and in democratic bodies tho constituents get just as good or bad an administration as they deserve. If there is any kick coming on that score, the misguided electors should kick themselves, not their representatives.

Facing the Facts. —lt is useless crying over spilt milk, but it is wise to avoid upsetting it again, and the problem now is how best to clean up the present mess. The questions to be met are how to get a ground which will do justice to the game; how to get the best players grouped into teams which will be able to give Soccer displays worth watching; how to secure competent management and control to carry on the game; how to rouse public interest and secure it for the future.

Tho Headquarters Problem. —The matter of a permanent home for Soccer is one of the first to be faced, and is one which has worried the management for a generation past. It was hoped that acquiring Blandford Park had settled that problem, and for a season or two the public patronage quite justified that hope; but the retention of the Stadium is now a serious question, and unless the lost patronage can be regained, the prospects are far from bright. The exact position is not known, and never has been, but it is well known that muddling and lack of firm control over tho sub-lessees has been all to the detriment of Soccer. If the park can bo put in proper order, and kept so without overhead charges accumulating and outpacing revenue, then it would be a tragic blunder to let it go out of Soccer control, as it is an ideal site, with great potential value as Auckland continues to grow.

Improving the Stadium. —As suggested before, the Blandford Park problem is one to be studied mostly as a business proposition, and should therefore bo thoroughly gone into by a body capable of dealing with it as such. Then if the park is to be gone on with, it should be vested in a trust board independent of the A.F.A., and with the assistance of a lawyer who specialises in leases and sub-leases, and a qualified engineer who is expert in drainage and reclamation works, it could, be placed on a proper footing, so to speak, and the main problem for the A.F.A. would still be to improve the game and draw sufficient support to make it a paying proposition. The situation at Eden Park was in a similar muddle until a trust board took charge.

Improving the Game. —The experience of this season and previous ones proves conclusively that the public will not roll up in force to see poor Soccer on a worse ground, and the ground and the game go together. They will not pay to see poor Soccer on a good ground, or good players on a surface that spoils the game. As the 18 "senior” clubs play now, there is not much chance of seeing improved Soccer on any ground until the duds are weeded out, and the good players are brought together and concentrated in fewer teams, with eaph club compelled to run an efficient reserve team. That was suggested here last season, and repeated with emphasis from the start of this season, when the control board expressed its disapproval of one-team clubs, and then proceeded to admit them to full seniority in preference to a seven-team club! That sort of inconsistency makes those in control look funny and futile.

Objections to Mergers.—The suggestion here a fortnight ago to bring all tho senior players into six. clubs, and raise tho standard of play by the survival of the fittest, and the elimination of the obviously unfit, has met with general approval; but the main objection urged lias been the breaking up of established clubs with enthusiastic executives and barrackers. The reply to that is that the formation of these small one-team clubs has been in a great degree responsible for breaking up old-established and powerful clubs, and the dispersal to the four winds of their battalions of barrackers. After all, tho crowd is a great factor in drawing tho best out of the players. Watch a curtain-raiser to empty benches, and tho big game before tho big crowd, then compare the difference in the play. Where are the enthusiastic crowds who used to roil up to Blandford Park to • cheer for Ponies, Shore, ’Cote, Y.M., and the old-time clubs. One does notice them conspicuously with tho one-team combinations and sparse "gates.” The Fate of the Game,—lf the game is to be run in future by the casual combinations which spring up like mushrooms, and are about as deeprooted, the fate of the game will be in their hands, and the end of the old-time clubs which battled to turn out teams in every grade will soon be in sight; they will be out-voted, and probably abandon senior Soccer to look after the youngsters. Northcote once ran seven or eight teams; now, a few seasons later, it can only produce one B team, even after merging with Birkenhead. Shore was relegated to B grade, and Onehunga hafe hacl to battlo hard to avoid the same fate. Belmont has been up and down again, and only Ponsonby seems able to keep its juniors going strongly—outside the übiquitous Y.M.C.A. There is no encouragement for a club to work hard with about 100 players, and incur affiliation obligations of £4O or more, when a dozen players can get together and secure senior ranking, with all fees paid, at £1 a head, and no further worry. But how much lasting good is the one-team club going to be to tho code? They should be in a "house” competition among themselves, or compelled to fuse. Falcon Cup Semi-finals.—The semifinals for the Falcon Gup are set down for decision on Saturday, when Y.M.C.A. v. Thistle will Ire the principal bout, and Ponsonby v. Glen Innes will be the early knockout.