Mt Hagen AFL league holds school carnival for selection

Sports

By JAMES GUMUNO
THE Mt Hagen AFL league held its schools carnival last Saturday to select players for a junior development programme next year in Australia.
AFL-PNG development officer for Highlands region Elizah Barewoi said 10 players from five divisions would be selected for the junior development programme.
These include under-12, U13, U14 and U15 boys and U13 and U15 girls.
He said that during the training and fitness physical test, some would be dropped during the process.
He said a few would make it to Binatangs for the boys and Kurakums for the girls to play in Australia under the junior programme.
Barewoi said the carnival at Tarangau Primary School involved students from schools within the city. He said some high school students, especially grade nines, also took part in the U15 division.
He said since many students were now playing AFL, only the best players would be selected to go for further training to be included in the junior national teams.
Those selected will be notified shortly.
He said that AFL was a good sport and offered good programmes in Australia for talented youngsters to become good sportsmen and women in the long run.
He urged other schools near Mt Hagen who had shown interest to approach his office to be included in next year’s draw.
Meanwhile, he thanked Ramu Sugar, Boroko Motors, Hagen Club, Oil Min and others that helped to stage the weekend competition.