Kui Raiders gain valuable exposure from Sydney trip

By ELIAS LARI
KUI Raiders, the premiers of the Western Highlands Governor’s Cup, have returned from a successful trip to Australia.
They visited the Orange City in Sydney, a sister city to Mt Hagen and played two matches against the Orange Aboriginal All Stars and the Orange City Barbarians.
In front of a huge crowd that packed the Emu Oval, the Raiders beat All Stars 34-16 in their first outing and gave the Barbarians a 42-4 thrashing.
Raiders centre Ham Tee was in devastating form scoring most of the tries in the two encounters.
But their victories should be attributed to superb attack which was orchestrated by pivot Lionel Onke, halfback Skipper Mel and fullback Joe Joshua.
Also present to witness the games were PNG High Commissioner Charles Lepani, Western Highlands governor Tom Olga, the Orange City council staff and PNG residents from Canberra and Dabbo to cheer the visitors. Lepani said the visitors put on an impressive performance to beat an Australian side.
He said he was pleased to travel from Canberra to Orange City, which is a four-hour drive – to watch the PNG side win.
Among the crowd were 26 members of the Western Highlands provincial assembly who had travelled with the team to promote bi-lateral relations between the two cities.
Olga said he was impressed with the boys’ win. It was also an eye opener for them.
For more than 30 years, Orange City is a sister city to Mt Hagen but no one had taken an initiative to enhance the relationship until we arrived here.
“Since we have made contact and brought this delegation to Orange City we are hoping more activities will take place between the two cities,” he said.
The players attended a presentation night at the Emu club and were presented with gifts and souvenirs.
The Raiders spent one week in Orange City and another week in Sydney before returning to PNG.
Raiders coach Lesley Tikil thanked Olga for the concept which allowed the players to visit Sydney.
“People may think it is a waste of money sending a team overseas. But we believe that investing in human resources contributes to development.
“We have seen a lot of new things and we can bring back fond memories and also try to approach life from a different perspective,” he said.
Tikil said if Western Highlands was to develop, it would be proper to change the mindset of the youth.