FOOTBALL.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 April 1921, Page 8

FOOTBALL.

' OPENING OF THE SEASON. SATURDAY FLAY. A fortnight to-day will see football in full swing throughout Taranaki, when for the first time ‘in the province ail club football will be played on Saturday. For some years past the trend has been in the direction of Saturday, football, whilst the mid-week competition has been on the decline. In Soudi Taranaki all matches have for years past, betsi played on Saturday, and as the dual compel 1 tions 'in the north were causing considerable inconvenience, th®. Taranaki Bugby Union ?as decided in favor of confining club play to Saturdays. This may cause a little difficulty early in the season, but the position will soon right itself, more particularly as there is a probability of the Saturday half-holiday coming into vogue throughout Taranaki early in June. The proposal Jo grade the senior teams with the object of providing more even contests, atid also of playing inter-club matches all over the province in each grade, found general favor, and is to be given a trial this season. There is no doubt that it will tend to increase public Interest in the game. It was thought that there might be difficulty in grading the clubs, as some might have an objection to being graded; as B teams, but such proved not to be the case, several .of the clubs nominating for the B grade. Of the fifteen teams in the competition, the following eight were graded A: Waimate, Hawera, Patea, Kaponga, Opunake, Stratford, Clifton and Tukapa. This should provide a fine Competition. Opunake, who have not been very prominent in the last few years, have a teami of young players, and were keen to be included in the A grade. In the B grade there are seven, teams, viz.: Rahotu, Okato, Old Boys. Star, Inglewood, Elthain and Okaiawa, the last named being the only South Taranaki team. |t is questionable whether .another South Taranaki team should not have been graded B, Old Boys included in the A grade. However, their own ambitions did not extend above the B. At the end of the season the winning club in the lower grade will automatically change places with the lowest team in the A grade. All the clubs have held their annual meetings, and are all ,hopeful of having stronger .teams. Indeed, there is a keenness noticeable this year that augurs well for football, and Is reflected in the lower grades, where increased entries have been received. This keenness is noticeable by the number of entries received in lhe tournament being held at Manaia to-day, there being no fewer than 14 entries, Including five of the A gr"de clubs.

Clifton expect to be very strong this year. Besides the bulk of old members the club will have the services of Kingston, Campbell and Ross (Auckland representatives), and Hickey (Waimate and ex-Taranakl representative). M. Cain is said to be retiring this season, but his club-mates l ave not yet given up hopes of the New Zealand hooker again donning the jersey.

Stratford will have the services of Gray (Canterbury), Lamplough (West Coast), Cowie (Wanganui), and Ryan (Hawera) in their rearguard. This should give the red and blacks a great chance, as their back division was their weak point last year. The forwards will be led by Klvell and Masters, and can be relied on to hold their own. Kaponga arc said to be strong this year. This team has for some years been consistently “knocking at the door.” J. Kissick, who was considered the best' forward in the All Black soldiers’ team, has recovered from his illness of last year, and is now reported to bo in good form. Hawera should also be strong. Stat* are hopeful of making a good showing this year. Their forwards will again be lei. by R. Spence, while McCormick and Richards will probably don the jersey. FAMOUS RUGBY BROTHERS. Mr. Norman McKenzie, brother of “Off-side,” and one of several brothers distinguished in New Zealand Rugjiy, called on the Sydney Referee recently on his way back to New Zealand after visiting Melbourne. He looks the typical New Zealand forward—tall, big-boned, powerful'in build, and smiling—with an inexhaustible fund of information about the old game of Rugger, says “Cynic”:—He tells me the Rugby Union game is 'as popular right, through New Zealand as it ever was; that in Auckland, where the League game has a footing, the old gaune still holds its own. He thinks New Zealand will be able to get together a magnificent team to met the Springboks this year, almost quite as good all-round as any of the great teams of yore which wore the black jersey and silver fern. It is good to hear this, for the South Africans are likely to prove a very finely organised combination. More than one friend of mine who has been in South Africa tells me that the war hit cricket harder than football over there, and that the football standard will be very high this coming season.

The McKenzies of New Zealand, by the way, were wonderful men in Rugby. Five brothers each tops six feet in his socks. Can we equal that In Australia ?—William McKenzie ("Off-side”) Is 6ft 1%, Edward McKenzie 6ft 41n, J. McKenzie 6ft 2in, Herbert. McKenzie 6ft 4in, Norman McKenzie 6ft 2%in. Norman McKenzie represented Wairarapa and also Hawke’s Bay. He lives In Napier, and is in the Government Postal Department. Last year he was sole selector for the Hawke’s Bay team, which defeated Taranaki on the historic ground at New Plymouth. He is the youngest of the five brothers of the famous Rugby Union football family. '

Edward McKenzie, who represented the Wairarapa and also the North Island, was a prodigious drop and place-kick, and on one occasion, for the Wairarapa against Canterbury and Christchurch, he placed a goal from halfway and won the match for his side. J. McKenzie in his time was regarded by T> R. Ellison as one of the best wing-forwards in New .Zealand. Herbert McKenzie, besides representing the Wairarapa and North Island, played for the New Zealand Army team in England, prior to being severely wounded at Passchendaele in 1917. And William McKenzie is our old friend “Off-side.” a formidable opponent on the field and a kindly one off Mrs. M. A. McKenzie, the mother of this notable quintette, is still living, and lias taken a tremendous interest jn the athletic and Rugby contests for her sons. Sonne years ago a grandson of hers represented the Wairarapa, and to-day, at the age of only 67 years, she Is a great grandmother. CHANGES IN RUGBY FOOTBALL. "The changes in the game of Rugby football,” from earlier days down to the present season, are discussed in much detail in rhe January numbei of the Windsor Magazine by the well-known player and writer on Rugby matters, E. H. D. Sewell. In the course -of histheme, Mr. Sewell says:—

"The abolition of the two umpires and one referee system in favor of single control w-is not, in my humble opinion, a move to the advantage of football. It created a 'blind side,’ and in that fact lurks great danger. That region is the home of the player of dubious morals, and within it is usually to be found tie agent provocateur, if there is one in either fifteen. Many trier annually recorded would not be recorded if there were to be a revision to the old system of seeing fair play, but. inasmuch as referees are none to plentiful, and it would be very difficult to get three neutral officials for every match, we have to make the best of the single and much-har-assed individual who gets all the metaphorical kicks and extremely few of the ha'pence, wh’le he gives up practically every Saturday afternon througl’out the season for the general good and enjoyment of others.” That this paper may not suffer the charge of being too technical, it is necessary to pause here to state briefly what the "blind side” means. The blind side refers to that part of the game, and especially the side remote of the scrumniaga, which is a physical impossibility for a single referee to see. Naturally the black sheep of the flock favor this side of the game, which suffers accordingly, though, happily, not excessively, the black sheep being few in nnm* her, and extremely well-known tn consequence,

I could, and I would, cite chapter and verse of one of the season’s most important games that was won out and out by an act committed on the blind side of the scrum, It having been quite impossible for the referee to see what what happened. Yet that result stands, and is included in the annual articles which are written, and which state hgw the score as betwen these two Unions stands. Since we shall never revert to the old system of two umpires and a referee, the cure for all blind-side evils rests with the players, the captains of teams,’ and tte selection committees. They know "If one thing is certain, it is that uritil the three or four years Immediately preceding tile war, when the standard of play had improved out of all knowledge, play under the four three-quarter system ruled as much across tlui field as In the days of three three-quar-ters it had ruled up and down the field. Everything seemed to be subordinated to a form of combination that was more apparent than real, the fine Individualistic tendencies of the old game being stifled by the rather labored attempts to excel at what was known as the passing game. ‘lf the touch-line was the goalline, o.urs would he the best school team in the United Kingdom,’ said a famous coach to me, when I was seeking to estimate the public school form of 1917-18. What he said applied to a good many club teams, during the early years of this century. The New Zealand team of 1905 .came and showed the players of the United Kingdom that, after all, the goal-line was the one to cross, and they had more different ways of getting across it than any fifteen before or since them. Their visit provided the great awakening, and ii. would be a most extraordinarily different resistance that an equally gifted New Zealand team would encounter if it were to tour these islands now, in spite of the enormous sacrifices the Rugby game made in tl.e war.”