Central beats Southland to win McCulloch Cup 1956

Central Team for the seventh year in a row proved to good for all the sub-unions on country day.  Central's success was no surprise to selectors and coaches who predicted that Eastern and Central would provide the most likely material for the Southland country team.  On the day Central's fowward's M. Murphy., F. Brown and D. McDonald looked almost perfect.

The Country side is going to be seriously short on defence but makes up for it in the forward line up, where it is even more possibly stronger than town., but this lack of defence could pose a problem.  With this view the clash between Southland and Central for the McCulloch trophy at Winton will be well worth seeing.  Southland's strength is in its defences and so far this season have not been challenged against a really strong forward line.  This will be the first season the McCulloch trophy has been contested for, which was presented last year and is for the annual competition between Central and Southland Major.  
Sole Coach, of Southland, Miss Doreen Baird reports that the average age of 19 years 8 months is a little older than last year's team and is developing into an enthusiastic, strong unit. Last year there were just a few outstanding players, then a big gap back to the rest of the team.  Baby of the side is Cecilia Fahey who has just turned 17.  Two of the defences, M. O'Neill and N. Cruickshank are also under 18.
The forward line which gave the selectors a head ache is now going well, but there will have to be some concentration on accuracy before the team leaves for Gisborne next month,  but so far the emphasis has been on ball control and getting fit.  Players have a 9.30pm curfew which can be stretched to 10pm if a girl is working late.  Skipping and general fit exercises are carried out by the team every day.


The Fahey Sisters
Southland has something unique in the way of a basketball family at present. The two Fahey sisters - Eileen and Cecilia have made the Southland team as forwards this year and a younger sister, Maureen is a defender in the St Catherines team and is in the second grade representative team.  Monica Fahey (m. Burns) a forward was also a second grade trialist and two younger sisters Dorothy and Marie, 10 year old twins are keen players for St Joseph's School.

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