Ill-discipline can be costly

Hello everyone, welcome to the 17th ‘Churchie’s Comment’ for the year in your favourite rugby league newspaper — The National.

Townsville Blackhawks came to town armed with a couple of Kumuls in a game that was sure to be a good battle. The SP Hunters managed to wrestle early momentum back from the Blackhawks and run in three tries in the opening 20 minutes. A try to the fast -improving Jokadi Bire and two tries to our ever consistent vice-captain Keven Appo. In what was an entertaining start the to match. The first half saw the Hunters complete possession at 75 per cent, the Blackhawks, however, were even more impressive, completing at 90 per cent. Both teams completed strongly in the second half to finish with 79 per cent and 85 per cent overall for the match respectively. Ball security has been an issue for the Hunters throughout our start to the season, this was by far our best game with the ball in hand for 2021. We just came up against a side that managed to do that better and for longer than we did. Ultimately, we came up short in a six-tries-to-seven battle. There was for mine, a 10 minute period that defined the game. It came during the period where one of our players was off the field for 10 minutes for repeat offences. During his stint on the sideline, the Blackhawks ran in three tries, just an example of how much a game swings on momentum under the current rules. I’m still not sure of a couple of the offences that lead to our player leaving the field. But I must admit, that we must be stronger in moments of the game when we are under pressure and need to halt momentum against us. That is a learned behaviour and only comes with experience and practice. Something that I am fully aware of, is how inexperienced our squad is in 2021. The Hunters — as a programme — is a development pathway, our goal is to advance more players towards the National Rugby League (NRL). To do this effectively, we need to provide NRL clubs with young talent, with good years ahead of them to develop into NRL quality. Research of world sport over the past 30 years and general guidelines around the NRL suggests it takes around two-and-a-half years to develop to a competent level. This puts that around the 50-60 game mark. The Hunters only have four players above 40 games for the Hunters. Eighteen Hunters are in either their first or second season in 2021. Now you could say that I am probably my own worst enemy in that regard, as I selected this squad myself. It’s my role to help these young men develop towards higher honours or for long careers with the Hunters who can then help develop more young PNG talents. Stability is the key to development of talents, if we can keep the core group of these young men together to reach that development mark collectively, then it has the ability to produce great young talent. This will mean these talent are peaking at a young age and then they are getting noticed in the age bracket in which NRL clubs want talent to be. While this inexperience might cause some short-term pain in the win-loss column, it has huge potential to set up the Hunters programme for years to come. We need to underpin this focus on youth and re-establish development or academy programmes. These academies will educate our young players on the Hunters habits and streamline the process of becoming a Hunter. Like my strategy on the current Hunters, we need a long-term view of developing our youths. This should provide better talent for the Hunters, the Oil Search Papua New Guinea Orchids and the PNG LNG Kumuls. Surely, we all agree that’s a great outcome for the game in PNG. Until next week, stay safe, play safe and let’s all respect and be kind to each other.

Cheers,
Matt