League rolls out five-year plan

THE Papua New Guinea National Rugby League Competition (PNGNRLC) will introduce national competitions for women and Under-19s starting 2025 as part of its five-year strategic plan (2023-2027).
The plan, headed by PNG Rugby Football League’s high performance general manager Marc Portus, includes a junior pathway that captures children from ages 6-12 through modified format games.
Portus said during the launch at the Santos National Football Stadium yesterday that they plan to bring the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup on par with the Hostplus Cup in regard to the game’s standard and the running of the competition.
“Over the next five years all our resources will be put into our priority areas which are the four pillars.
“The four pillars are club professionalism, coaching and officiating, competition pathways and competition management,” Portus said.
“The Digicel ExxonMobil Cup women’s competition will come in in 2025 and the national competition for U19 boys in 2026 and the U19 girls in 2027.
“Coaching and officiating is about developing the expertise and the skills of our coaches, referees and match officials.
“Club professionalism is about the journey of the clubs themselves.
The PNGRFL will support these clubs and help them become more professional.
“It’s about turning these rugby league clubs into professional sports businesses.
“We want to turn PNGNRLC into a professional and well run competition that can make PNG Hunters a stronger team and PNG rugby league can be a force on the world stage.
“Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) is the benchmark and it’s supported by Queensland Rugby League and New South Wales Rugby League who run their own competitions.
“What we are trying to do is to get PNGNRLC to the second tier level and we will get a lot of support from QRL to do that.”
Portus said the plan would cover salary caps and talent equalisations systems such as the NRL.