Madang holds dual finals

By JAYNE SAFIHAO
SPORTS fans in Madang were split on Sunday with two grand final games being hosted at the same time.
At the Laiwaden Oval were the provincial soccer finals with the Nixon Duban Cup rugby league finals at the Ron Albert Oval.
With scores of soccer lovers filling Laiwaden to capacity, league fans were entertained late into the evening.
A tough match was played between the two best A-grade teams: SK Bomai Pythons and Brothers.
The Cathy Wera-sponsored team KET Tarangau beat Samson Kuli Bomai Pythons in the B grade 22-14.
Pythons did not play as well as expected, lacking a game plan and the energy to bring the ball up to the Tarangau line throughout the game.
Tarangau had an earlier opportunity, scoring two quick tries and leading for most of the game.
Despite Pythons scoring in the dying stages, Tarangau held on to win by 12 points.
Tarangau won the 2012 James Kasi Perpetual Trophy, in honour of Kasi, a long-serving member of Madang Rugby League.
Taragau was given K1,000. The Pythons received K500 as the runners-up.
Pythons team manager Mark Sahgo said a lack of a game plan  cost them the match.
“Our players have had some issues and this affected  their training.
“We basically played with no focus, our minds weren’t on the job.
“We played without a plan for the first three quarters of the match and it showed,” Sahgo said.
Meanwhile, Brothers in contrast played with more structure and purpose with Billy Adams, Phil Garima, Greg Hepo and Philip Gonma all crossing the line for tries.
But Pythons missed tackles and a high error rate put them consistently on the backfoot and never allowed them any ascendency in a contest between two evenly-matched teams.
The Duban cup was presented to Brothers by Provincial Police Commander Anthony Wagambie Jr.
 on behalf of Duban, who officially kicked off the 2012 finals.

Brothers scored through, Philip Gonma, Greg Hepo and Bill Adams scoring a double with three successive conversions winning on 22 points to 14.
 The success of the grand final was made possible by local MP and Police Minister, Nixon Duban who is also the patron/sponsor of MRL.
The impressive Duban Cup was presented to MRL executives by Provincial Police Commander Junior Anthony Wagambie on behalf of Duban, who officially kicked off the 2012 finals.
Wagambie also announced during the presentation that the next challenge would be to have a Madang team play in the 2013 Digicel Cup competition.
Robert Dama took out the man-of-the-match prize courtesy of Digicel and MRL.
Brothers took the coveted Duban Cup and K2000 prize money; Player of the year award went to Jeff Tumbu of Snax Tigers; Rookie of the year award to Andrew Agua of Humade Dragons.