Naipao slams Vipers

By JACK AMI
RUGBY league administrator Dr James Naipao has described the Port Moresby Vipers board and team management as the laughing stock of the Digicel Cup after the club’s poor form eight rounds into the competition.
Naipao, a former Vipers player and the current chairman of the Port Moresby Rugby League, blamed poor management as the root cause for the side’s eight-match losing streak.
Vipers manager Paul Komboi responded to Naipao’s claims saying the National Capital District Commission was the Vipers franchise owner and was working to develop the team and the code in the city.
“The NCDC are the franchise owners of the Vipers. We won the bid for the Vipers and if the PRL want a team in the Digicel Cup they should have made a bid,” Komboi said.
Komboi agreed the 2017 season had been a struggle for the Vipers but said the management was aware of the team’s potential and where they would be in coming seasons.
“We’ve got a young team with the majority of players having little to no Digicel Cup experience. We also have tried several coaches who are also new to this level so it will take time,” Komboi said.
“We’re trying to build a good team with fresh talent and it will take a while. You probably won’t see the results until next season or later.
“We’re also doing our part to develop PRL talent and the Vipers are budgeted for as part of the NCDC’s sports programme, so we’re trying to develop a team for the future.”
Naipao, pictured, said the Vipers had once been the most successful team – they last won the title in 2013 – in the semi-professional competition and there was no reason why the club could not be No.1 again given it had the advantage of recruiting players from the biggest league in the country.
Naipao said the club needed to be managed independently as was done in the early days.
“I am a proud former player myself and it is really disappointing and frustrating to see a team like the Vipers losing and coming last,” Naipao said.
“The Vipers were a champion side in the early 1990s and they never got the wooden spoon. The team was sponsored by the Coral Sea Hotels but the PRL managed everything and the results were very good.
“The sponsor did not manage the Vipers, the PRL called the shots and the sponsors were provided annual financial reports,” he said.
Naipao, in his capacity as the PRL chairman, called on the NCDC in its role as franchise owner, to do better with its resources and expertise in order to get results.
He said the team had been allowed to put on mediocre performances and the city’s rugby league fraternity was concerned.
He urged the NCDC to allow the PRL to have a say in how the club was run.
Naipao said the PRL had been critical of the NCDC’s takeover of the Vipers with the management being given solely to the commission’s personnel.
He said player selections and the club’s policy and management were not returning results.
“This team rightfully belongs to PRL and the people of NCD and not city hall who don’t appreciate what the club is about and how to get results.”
“I call on NCDC management to release the ownership of the Vipers back to PRL in 2018.”
Naipao said on current form the Vipers would end up last on the ladder which would be their second year in a row with the wooden spoon.
“The problem is that the Vipers management is not recruiting the best talent available and you have a team that is not performing as a result.”