League’s new grassroots focus

 OVER the past four days two Australian rugby league’s finest and the head of the world’s leading competition were in the country promoting the sport.
Mal Meninga, the Team Kumul director, was in Ko­kopo to oversee the accreditation of Digicel Cup referees, coaches and trainers, ov­er two days.
This was the biggest single congregation of the country’s best coaching and refereeing talent and signal­led the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League’s first coordinated effort to get everyone on the same page in 2014 and beyond. With that base to work off the benefits should be tangible in the new season which starts next month.
In Port Moresby, National Rugby League chief executive officer David Smith and game ambassador Petero Civoniceva, who accompanied Australian Prime Mi­nister Tony Abbott on his visit to the country, were special guests at the first clinic of the NRL’s community-based programme, League for Life, which is aimed at integrating rugby league skills learning and education.
The programme is funded by the Australian Government through AusAid to the tune of A$5 million (K10.2m).
To cap it all off, Abbott publically endorsed the programme and acknowledged the positive change that the sport was capable of achieving, especially at the grassroots level and in particular with the youth.
Abbott has continued in the vein of predecessor Julia Gillard, who on her visit to PNG in 2012, took time to recognise the country’s number sport and was the first Australian PM to actively and publically show support for league on these shores.
With the advent of the Hunters rugby league is entering a bullish period where development and interest will peak.
Programmes like the Lea­gue Bilong Laif are not necessarily pathways to representative football but serve as an introductory phase into the sport where children who watch the games on television or go to the fields on the weekend can learn the skills and associated values through clinics run by dedicated staff and with the bonus of a Kumul or Hunter in tow to add to the experience.
“It’s an NRL programme, but it’s designed to do social good. It’s designed so that kids learn some basic skills while having fun but incorporates a message about the importance of education,” Smith said during Saturday’s first clinic of the League Bi­long Laif programme at St John’s Catholic Primary Sch­ool in Tokarara.
“It’s all about respect, kids running around having a good time; it’s about having positive role models and learning to respect their colleagues. In turn they learn to respect their families, participate in something they like. It’s a vehicle to teach them some values and the hope is that it adds positively to their lives.” One of the encouraging aspects of the administration of this programme is that it is run by locals. Former Kumuls Mark Mom and Nigel Hukula have been given the responsibility to take the initiative to the schools and give children a chance to benefit from it.
Both men are great role models being former captains and having held assisting roles in the Kumuls set up after their playing days.
Like PNG Hunters coach Michael Marum, these two men have been in the wings watching the development and the setbacks the sport has gone through over the past decade and have now finally been given a chance to leave their mark on the game that was a big part of their lives.
If Marum’s example is anything to go by, Mom and Hukula bring their own unique skill sets to the table.
Mom has a background in management, while Hukula is a teacher. Mom was a great organiser as a halfback, while Hukula was a forward leader who was respected by his peers.
Mom is the NRL’s in-country manager and will be at the forefront of this programme which is slated to reach 50 schools over the next 24 months and impact an estimated 50,000 school children.
With the generous help of AusAid, this programme, like other well-funded and managed rugby league initiatives, is expected to have a positive impact on its targeted audience much like what the Hunters have experienced and hopefully what the Kumul teams in the future will experience.