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LACROSSE." '
The . first - round of premiership matches was
played on Saturday. Thc weather was all that
could be desired, and thc grounds were in perfect
condition, but thc lacrosse displayed in . most
matches was below. premiership, standard. . A sec
tion: M.C.O. arid' St. Kilda mot on the Richmond
cricket ground. AVhitc won the, toss from M'Doncll,
and decided .to. throw against .the wind into the
railway goal, his reason being Hhat for the first
half St. Kilda defenders would have the sun in
their faces, whilst in the second half "Old Sol"
would be too far round to seriously affect thc
M.C.G. buck men. From the"faceoff," thc ball was
rushed into thc M.C.C., territory, but thc Saints'
forwards were slow to take advantage of an open
ing, nnd M.C.O. quickly transferred thc scene of
operations to thc. othcr end. Thomas snapped up
the ball on attack wing, and, rushing in, scored a
clever goal for thc M.C.C. Off again, and thc ball
once more travelled to ihe St. Kilda citadel. Tliomos
had a shot, which was going wide, but O. Murray
somcwliat luckily altered its course between thc
posts. Half time— M.C.C., 2 goals; St. Kilda, nil.
Tlie St. Hilda defence players had up to this
played a capital game, Delves in goal, and M'Do-
nell and Smith out, being particularly effective,
but thc brothers Handficld and Jacobs were too
much for the Saints' forwards, whilst H. Mur
ray was keeping goal in splendid style. During the
second half, M.C.Ci played better together, and B,
Murray and O. Murray quickly added 2 goals to the
total, the latter being the outcome, of the finest
piece of play of the day— without being intercep
ted by a St. Kilda player, the ball travelled from
Ramsdcn to White, to SimBOn, to B. Murray to
C. Murray, who scored the goal. During this half,
St. Hilda's defenders again played well, Simpson,
.Ilamblcton, Smith and M'Doncll nil working like
Trojans, but they were badly supported by their
attacks and homes, who made frequent pretty ex
changes, but who seemed to leave shooting for
goal out of the question until it was too late. Just
on call of time, B. Murray scored fifth goal for
M.C.C., thc game ending— M.C.C., 5 goals (C.
Murray 2, B. Murray 2, Thomas 1); St. Kilda, nil.
C. R. Handficld played thc. best game on thc
ground, whilst of those not previously mentioned
Simson (M.C.C.) and Wilson, Doncy and Cox,
of St. Kilda, played well. ' Tlie lastnamcd has a
nice turn of speed, and when a little more profi
cient with his crosse, should make a capital centre
man. Mettenhall performed the duties of referee
very creditably. Hawthorn pluyed and defeated
Essendon on the Essendon cricket ground, by 4
gonls (Goss 3, Tait 1) to 1 goal (Gay). Notwith
standing reports to the contrnrv, Gordon donned
the Hawthorn uniform, and with Arbuckle, Bain-
bridge and "ttalsh, played splendidly in defence.
« ' x, ncw Gpal keeper was also a tower of
strength to the winning team. Goss has been very
much off form in practice matches, but he deligh
ted his supporters with his magnificent display in
this match. _ Harry Bainbridgc bos been transferred
to attack wing, where lie showed to better advan
tage than second home. Batchelor on attack, und
Hoskyns also played well for Hawthorn. The most
noticeable feature of thc Essendon team was the
absence of nearly all of tho old players. Search,
who will eventually take command, was too ill to
Play but the M Calls, Gilchrist, Fison, M'Chcanc
and othore were missed. Radford, one of Flein-
incrton s best attack players of last season, was the
m-kiiL rP.a. Ui ,ar ta defence for Essendon,
mist Gay and Rudd, also frlcmlngtonfans, played
Hnra?i «LM.nKarU'Mbut ,t!,0ir efforts were consi-
dcrably spoilt by other players crowding the goal
too much. B section: Auburn (L. Brain fi, R
?rV' Lp?al9 v ghton (Merriman)
1 goal. St. Kilda (Tolmar 3, Levey 3, Mather 1,
S mSo H igTa-MV ?SSG"d0n nil' Kew (Waters
o, Moorhcad 1, Libby l, \ ounuor 1) 6 iroafa v
University (Thorn 2, Deniis. l), 3 goals.
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