League to go rural

The National Sports

By NAOMI KALATE
THE Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League will be prioritising rural leagues in the country in its vision to develop the code domestically, chief executive Stanley Hondina says.
Hondina told the PNGRFL annual general meeting in Lae over the weekend that the league’s five-year game development strategic plan (2023-2027) was focused on the communities.
“We are into day one of operations and we have four more years to see the fruit of the plan. The start is always the difficult but slowly we are incrementing those plans,” Hondina said.
Hondina said PNGRFL’s confederates and the regional offices in the provinces would drive the league’s strategic plan.
He wanted to get feedback from the regional offices to know what challenges they faced in order for them to help accordingly.
“We understand that the teams such as the Kumuls, Orchids and Hunters and other teams are rising to some extent but the product of the game doesn’t match the bigger population of the game,” Hondina said.
“The bigger population are at the community and that is our focus for now, but for us to fix that we need a good pathway to be extended first to provide support to the communities.
“That is why in the last few years we have stabilised the plans…the pathways are getting clearer and then we are looking at going into the operations.
In its bid to gain the National Rugby League’s 18th licence in 2026, PNGRFL have started a few programmes to create pathways for players and upskilling of officials.
The most recent programme is the upskilling of the country’s inter-city competition coaches and strength and conditioning mentors, including the PNG NRL Bid Academy directed by Joe Grima.
“To support the plan and for it to be carried out successfully we got the regional confederate officers,” Hondina said.
“That is why from 2024-2025 we are looking at going into the regions. Most sponsors want to sponsor because they believe in the product or the players and the game, and that is the priority now for us.
“We are the custodians of the game and based on the statutory responsibilities and due to the tax issues, we were not able to solve those issues. However, it is through our partners and sponsors that we have sorted out those (issues).”