Early Association Football

WHILE New Zealand was growing ‘rugby mad’ in the eighties of last century, a few bold dissenters, dismayed neither by the amused scorn of rugby men nor by the indifference of press and public, were seeking to revive interest in the round ball with which some of the earliest football games in the colony had been played. We have noted how matches with H.M.S. Rosario in 1870 were played under nondescript rules, with fifteen men in a team, although the ball was round. At that time soccer, even in England, was not being played under uniform rules, and it was not until a year later, 1871, that the inception of con­tests for the English Football Association Chal­lenge Cup (now known throughout the Empire as ‘the Cup’) led to the scientific development of soccer .and to its immense popularity as a game for the masses.

It was not until 1885, however, that a club was formed in New Zealand with the specific purpose of playing the Association game, this being the Northern Club, of Dunedin. It is still an active club affiliated to the Otago Football Association and held its jubilee in 1937. In 1886 the arrival of the brothers Chamberlain at Auckland gave a fillip to the game in that city, and by 1887 there were four teams there, though there was as yet no regular competition. Progress was being made in Wellington and Christchurch too, and the first representative match between these two centres was played either in 1889 or 1890. In 1891 their match was watched by one Robert Brown, formerly of Glasgow, a great enthusiast who was so delighted with the game that he presented the Brown Shield for competition between the different centres. This gave a great stimulus to the game in New Zealand, and for a time soccer developed so rapidly that it threatened to supersede rugby in public interest. When for instance a parade of schoolboy soccer players was organised at Auckland in 1895, over 1,000 boys took part.

With the presentation of the Brown Shield the need for a central authority was seen, and the New Zealand Football Association was formed in October of the same year. A match between Wel­lington and Auckland was also played that year (1891). This was played on the well-known rugby ground of those days, Potters Paddock, and in accordance with the prevailing practice was controlled by five officials—two line umpires, two field umpires, and a referee. One of the Auckland representatives, Austin Smith, achieved the rare feat of being ‘capped’ for both soccer and rugby in the same year. Writing of the match beforehand, the New Zealand Herald said: ‘As considerable interest is being shown concerning the Association match with Wellington next Sat­urday, it is as well for the benefit of the uniniti­ated to explain how the game is played.’ It then proceeded to illuminate the mysteries of soccer for the benefit of its readers.