National zone championships in Goroka postponed
By JAMES KILA
THE NATIONAL Zone
Championship scheduled for this weekend in Goroka has been
postponed.
PNG Rugby Football League national zone championships coordinator,
Ifisoe Segeyaro, said yesterday the tournament will now by held on
Sept1-2.
Segeyaro said one reason for the postponement was the late
withdrawal of New Guinea Islands due to financial constraints.
He said the other zones agreed to the new date to allow the NGI
team to secure the money to attend.
Segeyaro said it was important to revive the national zone
championships in order to identify the untapped raw talents in
smaller league playing centres.
He said that zone championship in the past years had been the
“corner stone” of rugby league development in PNG.
“National zone championships are very important for smaller
leagues who don’t have the opportunity to participate in the
semi-professional SP Cup competition,” Segeyaro said.
“The zone championships would also give a wonderful opportunity
for the smaller centres to showcase their talents for the national
league to identify,” he added.
Segeyaro was also very particular about sponsorship for the four
zones and even the national zone championships.
He said that so far the four zone teams had to dig deeper into
their own pockets to send teams to the Goroka championships.
Additionally, the national championships does not have a corporate
sponsor, thus leaving PNGRFL as the only major sponsor.
On that token, Segeyaro had also appealed to potential sponsors of
rugby league to assist.
