Disastrous year for league, says Numapo

THE Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League interim chairman John Numapo finally made a statement yesterday in regards to the league this year stating that the 2010 year for the PNGRFL was nothing but disastrous resulting in what exposed the national team as an embarrassing easy pickings in the Four Nations tournament.
Taking a downturn amidst the administration with a number of problems and challenges this year, beginning with a failed annual general meeting last year leading to a dispute between Gary Juffa and Albert Veratau over the election of the board at the AGM, there has been no one in control of the game with two different sets of caretaker administrations.
This laid the PNGRFL back by two years when AusAID grants were withheld and a number of programmes, especially for junior development, were shelved this year when it was realised that there was no proper board.
He added:  “I am not trying to pass the blame to anyone, however as part of the interim committee, I must admit that the interim committee, failed to properly manage the affairs of the PNGRFL.
“We could have done better had we listened to advices given and get ourselves involved more in the dialogue and consultations with other stakeholders. We failed in that regard and, therefore, must shoulder the blame.”
Numapo added that the Kumuls lost very badly in the Four Nations and that the selection of the players and the coaching staff were riddled with controversies plus the national selectors did not agree with the final squad that was announced.
“A lot of our good experienced players, both in PNG and overseas, were overlooked and left out including coach Adrian Lam. “Thus, we should have done better but we did not, he said.
“We failed rugby league and the country by sending a team that lacks experience, discipline and skills to participate in international tournaments that is very competitive.”
PNGRFL’s anuual general meeting will be held at the end of this month, on Nov 28 in Lae, as stated by PNGRFL chief of operations Joe Tokam, where the election of a new board will take place.
Numapo pointed out that  it was likely that there would be a whole new composition of a board to run next year’s calendar.
Numapo appealed and called on leagues to put aside their politics and work towards one goal to benefit the league in the country.
He said: “We do not want the PNGRFL to go through the same problems again next year and I call on all the affiliated leagues in the country to properly think about who they should elect to the board.
Numapo also suggested the probability of including a PNG team in the Queensland Cup in 2012, which could be a viable stepping stone for PNG into the NRL as well as giving good exposure to PNG players to be more competitive.
He said: “I wish to respond to a statement made in the media this week attributed to Paul Broughton of the PNG NRL Bid Team that the PNGRFL is now a member of the RLIF following the Pacific Cup last year. “
“For Broughton’s benefit and others who might not know the history of rugby league in PNG, the PNG Rugby Football League  is one of the foundations members of the International Rugby League Board (now RLIF) since 1974 when the late Sir Dr Jim Jacobi was the president of the PNGRFL.
The other foundations members of the international board were Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand and France.” Numapo said.