Hunters all set

By ISAAC LIRI  
THE Papua New Guinea Hunters squad for this season’s Queensland Cup has been finalised by Coach Michael Marum and endorsed by the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League board.
In a training session at the National Football Stadium yesterday Marum said the original 54 train-on group named last November had been trimmed down to a final 29-man squad for the 2017 Queensland Intrust Super Cup season.
“It’s been a tough three weeks pre-season, two weeks here in Port Moresby and one week in Goroka. We saw some old boys out and new boys in and everyone is working hard so it’s good to see,”Marum said.
To beef up this year’s line-up Marum said the return of five players David Loko, Lawrence Tu’u, Noel Joel, Stanton Albert, Willie Minoga including inaugural skipper Israel Eliab had added quality and class to the team.
“Everyone who wanted to come back was given the chance and be part of the team and upon completing the fitness programme up in Goroka they impressed but they still have a few things to fix up. With their experience in the side it will help us a lot this year,” he said.
Having a group of new faces in the camp this year with most from the Digicel Cup, Marum said they had earned their way into the side however the squad would need to get into the right mental and physical state in order to handle the rigours of the Q-Cup.
“Regarding the new players, we still have are a lot to do with them. We have been concentrating on fitness and to be honest we have been really behind our training schedule because of the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup and we started off five weeks behind schedule and we had to cram a six-week programme into three weeks.”
With fitness tests done this week Marum said five players failed but the 43-year-old said he would persist with the stragglers because he had already included them in the 2017 squad.
With the loss of Hunters co-captains Adam Korave and Noel Zeming this year, Marum said there were a lot of leaders in the side and he would name the captain for the season at the club’s 2017 launch at the end of the month.
Marum added that they would leave two or three spots available for players in the Digicel Cup that impressed to be promoted mid-season.
Leading up to Q-Cup kick-off, the Hunters will play one trial match against Northern Pride on Feb 18, two weeks before the Q-Cup kicks off on March 4.
Hunters 29-man squad: Adex Wera, Anderson Benford, Ase Boas, Bland Abavu, Radley Brawa, Butler Morris, David Loko, Eddie Dafa, Edward Goma, Enoch Maki, Esau Siune, Henry Wan, Ismael Balkawa, Israel Eliab, Junior Rop, Karo Kauna Jr, Lawrence Tu’u, Moses Meninga, Nixon Put, Noel Joel, Gahuna Silas, Stanton Albert, Stargroth Amean, Wartovo Puara Jr, Watson Boas, Wawa Paul, Wellington Albert, William Akuila, Willie Minoga.