Church maintains stance

By PARKER TAMBUA
SP PNG Hunters coach Matthew Church says he will not disclose any details of the reason behind the sacking of forward Epel Kapinias.
Church said yesterday that the club made it known to the 23-year old on the team rule that he broke.
The Australian said Kapinias was well aware on what he did which got him sacked.
“Epel was made very aware of his mistakes, he made mistakes previously and he made mistakes again in this pre-season,” Church said.
“It was a collective decision by the coaching staff as I don’t make decisions myself.
“He (Epel) had an opportunity last year to become an NRL (National Rugby League) player this year but his actions led to that club not wanting to take him.
“I am not going to disclose the details on what Epel did. He didn’t break laws or anything but there are standards that we have at the Hunters that we want to live by and he chose his own actions ahead of the team.
“You don’t last long in sporting organisations if you put your own interest ahead of the group.”
Church said there were three important aspects that he was looking at in the pre-season. He said the players that got sacked failed in those areas.
“The three things that we are looking at are how hard the players are willing to work every day, second thing is how well prepared they are for training each day which means drinking a lot of water, eating well and sleeping well.
“The third thing is how they treat people or how they respond to adversity.
“Those are the important things that we have judged every player and that is why we’ve seen Edwin Ipape and Epel released because they didn’t want to treat people well or train well.”