Gawi stars in Maroons victory

NORTHERN Zone schoolboy prospect Michael Gawi played a starring role in the fullback position to help Suburban Maroons crush Suburban Blues 10-6 in the final of the Suburb of Origin series in the Buimo Road off-season league competition in Lae, Morobe province.
The Maroons’ victory capped off a tough series for one of the biggest off-season competitions in PNG.
The finals attracted more than 1000 spectators to the Lord Mayor’s Oval who were joined by the event main sponsor David Kaupa, to witness the clash between this season’s best rugby league players in the competition that has lasted for 10 years.
Maroons started in style when skipper Gawi, who was later named man-of-the-match, blazed his way around his bigger Blues’ opponents three minutes from kick off and raced 70m to send bulldozing prop Benett Anzu over the tryline for the first of the team’s two tries.
After winning the first match, Blues under captain Eddy More were unable to penetrate the defence put up by the Maroons but could only manage six points from three penalty kicks from in front of the uprights.
Maroons coach, Peter Kennedy, said it was the team’s aim to win and his boys executed their game plan well after going through the drills during training all through the week.
“It was a team effort and the boys carried it out very well. Our defence was the main winning factor.
With limited opportunities for players in the bemobile Cup challenge, I thank David Kaupa for the assistance in staging this event,” Kennedy said.
Congratulating the two teams on the success of the event, Kaupa called on the younger generation to refrain from drugs.
He appealed to the community to learn positive things to develop themselves.