ANOTHER young Papua New Guinean will be selected to join the Sydney City Roosters Rugby League Club in Australia this year.
Chairman of the PNG School Boys Rugby League Iffysoe Segeyaro gave the assurance following the announcement of Swokin Magini, who is the first recipient of the Brad Fitler Award, being selected to train for four days with this high-profiled National Rugby League (NRL) club.
Magini is now back in the country.
“As chairman of the PNG School Boys Rugby League, I want to thank the Eastern Suburbs club for creating an incentive through the Brad Fitler Award for young Papua New Guineans,” Segeyaro said.
In the four days with the Roosters, Swokin was taken through fitness testing for speed tests, muscular strength and cardio vascular endurance, strength training and weights programmes and techniques, diet and nutrition and skills coaching.
“The Roosters should be applauded for giving our kids that opportunity to prosper in their rugby league careers; the Brad Fitler Award has open up the doors . . . a pathway . . . for our kids to look forward to,” Segeyaro said.
“The initiative is good for the code in PNG; it will help our kids stay focused and make them realize that they have to sacrifice some things in life in order to get to the top of the international rugby league ladder.
“This is the right direction for our children,”Segeyaro said.
Training among the elites of a National Rugby League club in Australia is a dream for all young footballers in Papua New Guinea.
For 18-year-old Magini, this dream became a reality on Dec 10-15 last year.
Magini was the only Papua New Guinean among 20 other schoolboys from Australia, New Zealand and PNG who underwent five days of skills and technique training with the Sydney City Roosters Rugby League Club last year.
“The five-day training was quite intensive, comprising gym sessions and running techniques, agility test and passing drills and ball skills and techniques.
“It was quite an experience,” Magini said soon after returning from Australia.
The Kilakila Secondary School student, who is the second born in a family of three boys and a girl, attributed his success in schoolboys league to his family and PNG Schoolboys League chairman Iffysoe Segeyaro.
His brother Jackson is also involved in the schoolboys competition, while dad was once a Port Moresby Rugby League player.
“I want to say thank you to all those people who helped organized this training session with the Roosters for me; I was able to learn a lot of new things,” Magini said.
“I should make particular mention of Mr Segeyaro and his schoolboys officials, my family, team mates, friends and my coach at Kilakila Secondary.”