‘We’ve earned it’

WITH the clock ticking away to the Four Nations Cup in November, PNG Kumul coach Adrian Lam and his management team has a mammoth task in preparing the team in the coming months.
Lam said in an email to The National that his team would work very hard to get the PNG Kumuls to a level that they were at during the Pacific Cup.
“We have earned the right to be in the Four Nations tournament by beating all the other Pacific countries and it gives our country and our national team, the PNG Kumuls, hope and pride,” he said.
Lam said his main job was to prepare the PNG Kumuls to a good level of competitiveness against the powerhouses in world rugby league – Australia, New Zealand and England.
He said it had not be an ideal preparation and lead-up to the tournament with what was happening in PNG with the PNGRFL leadership issues. 
“Through adversity, I will build our team and find a true belief within our squad to do what is necessary to make our country proud.”
Lam described Gold Coast Titan David Mead’s injury as huge blow to PNG as he was a major part of the Kumuls’ attack plan.
“He was going to be a huge boost for our team and the news is sad, especially because the Kumuls need our best and fittest players available for the Four Nations to compete with the best.
“We now have a huge challenge ahead of ourselves to find someone to take his place.
“We do have people in mind but it will be an ongoing task to find someone with his (Mead) talent to take his place,” he said. PNG coach strongly feels that PNG Origin game is critical for our country and for the future development of both our resident and overseas players.
There will be two squad penciled in early August. One squad will be of 40 players of PNG Residents taking part in the bemobile competition while the 22 will be made up of PNG International players.
He clarified that both squad are only squads as such and players will come and go out of both squads depending on form during the season until late September where both PNG ORIGIN teams will be named and therefore squads will be stripped down to roughly 18 players each.
From these squads a Four Nation team between 20-23 players will be named for the represent PNG Kumuls in 2010 Four Nation.
Mead will be hard to replace.