Governor’s office supports association with K20,000

By PATRICIA KEAMO
A RUGBY league association received K20,000 from the Office of the East Sepik Governor to support its season.
The association was formed recently through the merger of two leagues — Wewak and Maprik — to form a provincial league that will help promote tougher competitions in Sepik.
This is part of Sepik Pride’s aim to boost their league to create a pathway for their player base as well as promoting and developing the code in the province.
Pride interim project manager Bradley Simon told The National yesterday that the funding would be used for administration and logistics over the next three months to kick off the season.
He said the league would run as a provincial association with teams from Wewak, Yangoru and Maprik taking part.
Simon said they were looking at six teams each with three divisions — senior men, Under-20 men and open women.
He said the executives of the two leagues had agreed to the merger and the provincial board would include executives from both organisations.
“We have already visited Maprik and talked to them about including teams in the provincial league and we will be travelling to Yangoru this afternoon (yesterday),” he said.
“We don’t want to rush this, especially with the women’s division so we’re being careful.
“We’ll probably start with tag rugby or touch for the time being until we get women familiar with basic rugby league skills.”
Simon said there were plans to start school competitions that would create a development pathway for students to their provincial league and all the way to the Pride.
Their focus now is to transparently run the local league to create a pool of talented players who will be part of the Pride train-on squad at the end of the year.