FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1919, Page 7

FOOTBALL.

There is every indication of a revival this year in football, which, owing to the absence of so many players at the front, has been kept in the background i!n Taranaki during the war period. However now that the war is over and there is every probability of the players returning before the close of the present season, an endeavor is being made to re-organise football on pre-war lines, so that as the players return from the front they will be able to drop into their old clubs and keep up the grand old game. Many opine that football will never be as enthusiastically followed as of yore, but indications should point in the opposite direction, as during the war period many young fellows in camp and at the front played the game, and took a keen interest in it, that never played in their civilian days. They naturally will keep playing on their return and it is also hoped that Taranaki's well-known players will also don the jersey on their return as they have taken a prominent part in matches at Home. Indications last year in junior football were distinctly good, and numbers of the players gave promise of developing into firstclass men, and \vu„ a leavening of more seasoned players it should not Jbe long before senior football is once again in full swing. Already the majority of the clubs have had tjieir annual meetings and most of them report good prospects. In New Plymouth a meeting held on Wednesday night was very encouraging and it is hoped that there will be a very larjre attendance 'it the meeting which is to be called on Thursday evening next, when it wiil be decided whether two clubs can be formed this season and two senior teams entered or only one. Every endeavor will be made to' enter two teams, and it will be regrettable if it is found that only one can be entered. Junior football promises to be very strong and as well as a third grade competition, an endeavor is to be made to run a fourth-grade competition. In this latter some of the junior players in the secondary schools might compete. Keen interest is also being taken in football among the schools, and the schools competition this year should prove of more than usual interest

J. Stohr has evidently not lost his kicking powers. ... a recent match at Bradford, in which the Australian beat the New Zealanders by a point, he converted the only try the losers scored