Pepes elite fly out

SIX of Papua New Guinea’s best netballers left for Singapore yesterday to play in the 2017 Netball Super League competition as part of their international player programme.
Veteran defender Kilala Owen, and Shanna Dringo will play for the Magic Marlins, Jacklyn Lahari and  Tau Galewa will feature for the Fier Orcas, while Jeperth Tulapi and Marie Ottio will run with the SRC Barracudas.
The national federation yesterday farewelled the six with chair of PNG Netball, Julienne Leka Maliaki said that her sport was grateful for the support of Singapore Netball towards their high performance programme.
In particularly, the elite player pathway programme. She said the exposure at this high level of competition would not only boost the six women but the overall performance of the Pepes.
“This partnership with Netball Singapore goes back 15 years now, previously we had two players who participated in this exchange programme a couple of years back,” Leka Maliaki said.
“I am sure that the girls will do their best, and do Netball PNG and the country proud.”
Owen told the media that the group was excited to have been chosen by Netball Singapore to participate in the domestic competition.
“It’s a new challenge for me as well, to better myself. To be a role model for the upcoming girls who want to play at this level. They must have the commitment and sacrifice make it,” Owen said.
“I want to gain from this experience, to bring back what I have learnt to the local competition. To equip our young girls who are up and coming, so some of us here can be phased out slowly.”
The Netball Super League is the elite domestic league in Singapore, comprising of six teams in the 2017 competition.
Three of those clubs will be allocated two international players each.
The six-week competition runs from March 4 to April 29.