Lae to start junior AFL comp

The National Sports
Source:
The National, Thursday May 5th, 2016

 By MELTON PAIS
AFLPNG will start round one games of the junior school competition in Lae, while Port Moresby will be into round five  this weekend.
AFL PNG development manager Cornelius Papau said the Lae school competition would kickoff its season on Saturday at Eriku Oval, with over 12 schools who have already registered  in both the boys and girls divisions — Under-12, U13 and U15.
Papau said Port Moresby juniors would be playing their round five games this weekend at the Bisini Sports Precinct.
They have six more rounds to go to the finals.
“Over 22 primary schools have registered in the NiuKick School competition in Port Moresby,” Papau said.
“We are surprised to see the growing numbers in junior girls’ footy.
“Over 20 schools have registered and are taking a huge interest in playing AFL over the weekends, something that has never been seen before and it’s really healthy for our code’s development.”
He said the Southern region development championship selection started last weekend and the officials have selected over 90 U13 boys, who will be taking part in the championships on July 1-2 at the Bisini Sports Precinct.
“We are spreading the selection as much as we can.
“We want to consider all the schools participating to at least have some of their students competing in the championship,” he said.
“It is a huge pool of talent and we are taking every measure to select potential ones that we believe can go further in our programmes.”
Papau said this weekend’s U13 girls’ division match would be an exciting one because it was a first.
He said AFL PNG was excited to add the age group into the AFL PNG Academy development carnivals around the country in July.
“This provides an opportunity for girls aged 12 and 13 to register and compete in their local school competitions,” he said.
He said AFL PNG has been invited to send an U14 Jnr Kurakums (girls) team to take part in the AFL Queensland U14 State Development Carnival with the PNG U14 Binatangs (boys) next year.
“This are exciting times for junior AFL,” Papau said.