Marum challenges players

By ISAAC LIRI
HEADING into their Intrust Super Cup round 8 clash against the defending premiers Burleigh Bears on Sunday, PNG Hunters coach Michael Marum has challenged the team that out-muscled Redcliffe 12-10 last week to lift.
“I think we just want to be more consistent with our team after our win over the Redcliffe Dolphins last weekend,” Marum said.
“It’s going to be tough now with all the teams picking up momentum as we’ve seen low teams beat top teams last weekend, so we want to maintain the same 17 every week depending on injuries and form,” Marum said.
He said there were injury concerns with captain and play-maker like Ase Boas and forward Stanton Albert but the rest of the team had pulled through.
“Having a rest for this key players will be good in the round nine game against the Northern Pride and again if they’re going to be eligible for the Kumuls in the test against Cook Islands in May,” Marum said.
Other players like David Loko and Bland Abavu were retained despite having average games.
“If these players cannot lift this weekend then we will have to make changes.
“Again, we want to take our best team down to play the Burleigh Bears and there might be some changes to the team before we travel on Saturday but we’ll see as the week goes by,” Marum said.
He said if some players were dropped by the end of the week he would be counting on the replacements to take their opportunity.
Recalling last weekend against the Dolphins Marum said he thought the error count (17) was too high and he wanted the side to keep that stat down.
“We need to cut down on errors and complete our sets. We’ve looked at the video and even though we won we know our attack still needs a lot of work,” Marum said.
Hunters: 1. Bland Abavu 2. Stargroth Amean 3. Israel Eliab 4. Adex Wera 5. Karo Kauna Jr 6. Ase Boas (C) 7. Watson Boas 8. Henry Wan 9. Wartovo Puara Jr 10. Esau Siune 11. Nixon Put 12. David Loko 13. Wellington Albert; Reserves: 14. Radley Brawa 15. Willie Minoga 16. Stanton Albert 17. Moses Meninga 18. Enoch Maki 19. Wawa Paul 20. Ishmael Balkawa 21. Butler Morris