Hunters crash again

The National Letters

AFTER watching the Hunters play four times on television I must contribute some ideas to the teams coaching and medical staff.
Continuous ball spill by rugby players is an indication the fingers on the hand carrying the ball carry a certain degree of injury as seen among not only the Hunters players but it is now a trade mark among PNG rugby players.
The coaching staff will by now notice several fundamental errors, first some of our players would have their fingers strapped in pairs, small man with ring man, ring man with tall man or tall man with the pointer.
These styles of strapping are indications the injured fingers, usually soft tissue or mall joints in the fingers have not been identified and treated following the previous match and well before announcing the team for the next match.
Secondly, a player who hide this kind of injury will cheat selection and be on the team until strapping time come five hours before kickoff.
At this time, the coaching and medical staff will notice the affected player or players will request special strapping involving twin fingers, they will even request a piece of strap to self-strap a torn shoe, by then it’s too late to make adjustments.
Where the team has travelled out of home base, it’s a total waste of time, money and resources.
With restricted flexibility in the fingers on the ball carrying hand, one will notice players avoiding stretching out and planting the ball on the white chalk when they are tackled less than a meter to the opposition’s try line.
Their intentions are to step past the white chalk where they can ‘drop on the try line’ with the ball positioned between the wrist, elbow and shoulder.
Where players’ fingers do not carry any injury but they continuously spill the ball, several things need to be considered;

  • If Elastoplast spray have never been used on the player’s wrist, palm and fingers it is time this is done – NRL players use it every time before kickoff- is it too expensive for us to afford?
  • If we cannot afford this item, the stretchable white adhesive elasto-plaster can be cut into fine strips and taped around players fingers ‘inside out’ to allow ball grip and ball propulsion by players during play
  • If we still can’t afford this item than carry some fine smear of benzoic tincture compound to allow players to slightly dip their
    fingers to have the ball stick on during play.

Regarding a senior player causing us seven penalties in one game, this player must be considered for sidelining until he can prove his worth.
In general play, any kick must have a purpose instead of wasting the ball, also in wet conditions we need to slow our pace, let the heavy forwards gain the necessary yardage for us until we reach the
opposition’s red zone than let the sneaky players dive for the white chalk.
I would like to encourage Hunters players at this stage to please run some angles rather than the typical kamikaze runs to the try line, the opposition throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands already know our style of play, improvise!
To the coaching staff, you are doing fine, there is room for more improvement and i am certain we should pick up in the not too distant future.

Gerard Saleu
Goroka