FOOTBALL NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8434, 4 May 1907, Page 7

FOOTBALL NOTES.

(By All Biack.) McDonald, the All Black forward, is playing a magnificent game in Dunedin this year. He has been aptly named "a champion among champions." It is to be hoped that Auckland •will be able to send their best team to Dunedin this year. A match between them and Otago should furnish something out of the ordinary for forward and back play. The Dark Blues have both the forwards and backs to make a match of it this time against the doughty Northerners. George]Smith,the brilliant centre of the All Blacks, is playing for the City Club, last year's champions of Auckland. The names £of Mackrell, G. Tyler and Seeling figure among the forwards. G. Gillett (who in the opinion of many is the finest wing forward in the colony), Cunningham and Nicholson, other members of the All Blacks, are playing for Ponsonby (Auckland). D. Gallagher has been re-appoint-ed sole; selector of the Auckland representative team. H. Kiernan, a scrum half, who has played some good games for New Zealand, is captain of the Grafton Club (Auckland). The Mayor of Auckland (Mr A. M. Myers) in a recent speech defended followers of the game from the reproach that, they devoted too much time to football, , that such an assertion was made without due reflection on the far-reaching effects the sport had in building up the character of our manhood. Fryer, of Canterbury, is looked upon as a certainty for the New Zealand team that is to visit Australia. Hunter, an All Black of note, scored two tries for his club in Taranaki the other day. Among other backs of that famous combination who are playing again are Wallace, Roberts and Thompson (Wellington), Harper and M'Gregor (Canterbury), andißooth (Otago). The New Zealand team for Australia this year should be as strong as any other team that has left these shores other side. Sydney folk say they willl give the Maorilanders a good game this time. Jack Spencer, the Wellington forward, who many consider deserved a place in the All Black team, is said to be as good as ever. Says a Wellington writer: Mitchinson ought to be the biggest certainty in the world for the centre three-quarter position in the New Zealand team that goes to Sydney. "He played the whole team at times"—a pretty general opinion of the play of Johnstone, the All Black forward in the match Alhambra v. Zingari-Richmond, ' at, Dunedin, last Saturday. E. H. D. Sewell, in a special article in the London Opinion, says:— "Is any further proof necessary? Wales, the only side to seriously play the seven-forward game against the New Zealanders, were the only side to beat them; Cardiff, playing seven forwards, were the only club to beat the South Africans. : Wales, last year, won so long as the played seven forwards. Hood-winked for some reason or other, after the Scottish match at Cardiff, they reverted to eight forwards, and lost at Belfast." The annual meeting of the Nireaha Football Club was held in the Nireaha Hall, on Wednesday last, Mr Alberthsen occupying the chair. The balance-sheet for the past yetr was adopted, and the following officers were elected: — Patron, Mr A. Quinlan, senr.; President, Mr C/ v Alberthsen; Vice-Presidents, Messrs A . Redpath, T. Roberts, T. Dowden, N. C. Davidson, E. Goss, J. Daysh, C. McDonald, D. McDonald, G . Waterson, F. Busst, G. Waterson and B. Drysdale; delegates to the Union, G. Edwards and A. Quinlan; Secretary, A. Daysh. A vote of thanks was passed to the Secretary, Mr Jas. Quinlan, for the manner in which he had filled the office of secretary to *the Club during the past three years.