Chow to head new league

By JACK AMI
FORMER Lae Tigers boss Adrian Chow is the new chairman of the restructured Papua New Guinea National Rugby League competition for 2017.
Chow, 53, was appointed by the PNGRFL with the support of the 11 franchises at a meeting last week .
The announcement was made in the presence of PNGRFL CEO Reatau Rau, major sponsors representatives Manu Rajan (Digicel) and Josh Wheeler (South Pacific Brewery).
Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko was unable to attend the announcment with Parliament commitments.
The PNGRFL chairman Sandis Tsaka said he was confident the independent executive management would administer the semi-professional competition professionally and competently and most importantly.
Tsaka said administrator Stanley Hondina had a new role as the competition manger with the franchise representative being Andy Hetra.
The new management team will also have a representative from each of the major sposnors — Digicel and SP. Tsaka stressed that the new management structure was going away from the previous practice of having one representative from each franchise on the board.
The board has made available expression of interest forms and applications would be open to the current franchises with the proviso that they adhere to the requirements for a Digicel Cup. The competition is set to kick off on April 22 and with the season launch will be on April 19.
The team nomination fee is yet to be finalised.
Both Tsaka and Chow commended former chairman Sudhir Guru who resigned after four years as the head of PNGNRL.