Club set to keep Meninga

THE Townsville Blackhawks are set to extend Papua New Guinea Kumuls forward Moses Meninga’s contract after the Queensland Intrust Super Cup season cancellation over the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former SP Hunters skipper has played just one game so far for the Blackhawks since arriving in Townsville on a one-year deal in December. The new deal is for next season.
Club operations manager Adrian Thompson told The National from Townsville last week that the 26-year-old, who came off the bench in the Blackhawks’ 16-10 round-one win over Ipswich, had opted to remain in Australia.
“We sought advice from our immigration consultant immediately when the season was cancelled and our leagues club shutdown,” he said.
“We are waiting to apply for an extension of his visa for him to play with us next season and we’ve been advised that we can’t start that process until closer to the expiry date of his existing one.
“We are assessing the situation fortnightly with Moses. If he ever wanted to return home, we would organise for that to happen. At present, Moses is happy here. Our club continues to pay Moses.
“He lives and trains with one of our senior players, Sione Lousi, and our strength and conditioning coach Jason Tassell.
“We anticipate that the Covid-19 restrictions will be lifted sometime in the future. Our club will resume training as soon as that happens.”
The Blackhawks’ retention of Moses will give the 186cm, 101kg Kuiya villager more exposure to high-level training and football programmes leading up to next year’s Rugby League World Cup in England.
Meanwhile, Thompson said the Blackhawks had proposed to play a couple of friendlies against the Northern Pride later this year.