Hunters lift the nation with Q-Cup win

THE SP Papua New Guinea Hunters created our own slice of rugby league history by winning the Intrust Super Cup grand final yesterday.
Four years after joining the Queensland Rugby League competition, the team coached by Michael Marum completed a memorable 2017 in which they finished top of the table after the regular season and club captain Ase Boas and Marum were recognised as best player and coach.
The fairytale played out in the best way possible with the Hunters coming back from being 10-0 down at halftime against the Sunshine Coast Falcons to snatch an epic 12-10 victory.
After conceding two tries in the opening seven minutes the Hunters looked rattled at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, but they showed that same Queensland Maroons spirit of refusing to give up even when the chips are down.
It was a testament to that ‘never-say-die’ attitude that saw Marum’s men got back into the contest and turned it into a battle of attrition with all the bruising defence and committed play any coach could ask of his team.
The Hunters, much to the delight of the 11,260 fans who  turned out, were first to score through halfback Watson Boas two minutes after the resumption of play.
They continued the arm wrestle with the Falcons, who had held the lead from the fourth minute till the 79th minute when Willie Minoga scored the try that shook the former Lang Park to its foundations and resounded around Papua New Guinea.
Despite the match being scrappy with a high error count, the intensity was undeniable. The Hunters’ determination and resolve were best summed up by the club’s two leading men: skipper Boas’ refusal to go over to see his brother Watson after he was knocked out affecting a try-saving tackle in the 75th minute for which he was stretchered off the field, and coach Marum’s expression during the post-match television interview that betrayed barely a hint of emotion.
That is what it takes to be champions.
The Falcons were worthy opponents and could well have won the game had it not been for a Hunters side determined not to let their country down.
In the end that was what got the Hunters through.
The fact that this is not just a club that represents a province or a region, but a nation.
This win is not the end but the beginning for the Hunters. It marks a milestone in the only country in the world where rugby league is the national sport.
Marum’s men and the country will celebrate this victory but all must know that there is more work to be done and more mountains to be conquered.
They will face the winner of the NSW Cup grand final between Penrith Panthers and Wyong Roos, with that interstate championship match to be the curtain-raiser to the NRL grand final this Sunday between the Melbourne Storm and the North Queensland Cowboys at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney.
The Rugby League World Cup takes place next month with PNG to host three matches in Port Moresby. For the rugby league’s small global community, the Hunters’ win was a great promotion of the country and what the sport means to its people.
The PNG Kumuls and their passionate fans are sure to be a hit at the World Cup and look a very good chance to advancing to the quarterfinals as they face Wales, Ireland and the USA in pool C.
There have already been calls by two notable rugby league personalities over the last week for PNG to have a team in the National Rugby League.
England captain and St George Illawarra Dargons-bound James Graham and former Newcastle Knights five-eighth, TV show anchor and commentator Mathew Johns have both said PNG is deserving of more consideration in terms of the expansion of the game.
While the NRL and its backers look west to Perth, NSW and central Queensland for new teams, the two men say PNG should be at the head of the list.
That is a great endorsement for us.
It shows that people are taking notice of PNG rugby league and what it has to offer and the potential it has.