Encouraging times ahead

The National Sports

Greetings to all our rugby league family and welcome to our ninth edition of “Fulltime Reserve” for this year in our favourite rugby league newspaper, The National.
The Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League (PNGRFL) received conditional approval from National Pandemic Response Controller David Manning for the kick-off of the Digicel Cup and our elite rugby league competitions and programmes for this year.
The approval is subject to strict compliance around travel and game-day management. Restrictions include centralised venues and no spectators for the start of competitions whilst the pandemic continues to be monitored.
PNGRFL continues to work with the Office of the National Pandemic Response Controller and the PNG Sports Foundation to ensure that rugby league can resume safely for all our players, officials, supporters, fans and stakeholders.
We are looking forward to finalising all these soon and as such, a revised calendar for the year has been finalised and forwarded to all our member associations and key stakeholders.
The Digicel Cup, is tentatively scheduled to kick off on May 9 and will run for 16 rounds before the four-round finals series from Aug 29, with the grand final scheduled for Sept 19.
It is expected that the early three-six rounds of the competition will be played at two central venues with no crowds to comply with the restrictions on transportation and movement of teams.
PNGRFL’s tentative revised schedule for all other competitions are as follows:

  • All member association competitions including Schools – kick-off (May 22-23) and grand finals (Oct 30-31);
  • National club championships for member association premiers – member associations (Nov 6 -20) and schools competitions (Sept 18-Oct 2);
  • Confederate championships – member associations (August-September) and schools (August);
  • National championships – member associations and schools (both in September); and,
  • New National Women’s Premiership Challenge (four teams) – Aug 15.

PNGRFL is also pleased to introduce the National Women’s Premiership Challenge which will be played for six weeks concurrently with the last six rounds of the Digicel Cup. This new initiative is designed as a elite pathway programme for women to promote and develop the women’s game in PNG. The four teams for the inaugural 2021 challenge will be selected at the respective confederate championships.
The revised calendar also takes into consideration all our planned international programmes, including the Prime Minister’s 13 and the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
These competitions and tournament structures have been developed in line with PNGRFL’s plans to promote the growth of our domestic high-performance pathway. We look forward to working with all our stakeholders to ensure these important programs are delivered this year.
Until next week, may the grace, love and care of our Good Lord be with you.

Cheers,
Sandis