National touch yet to announce final squad

 PAPUA New Guinea’s national touch football squad for the Pacific Games is expected to be announced on February 26.

That was confirmed by Touch Football PNG secretary-general Ses Lae in an email to this newspaper yesterday.

Lae said the team had not been announced earlier was because the training camp for the extended squad had not been held yet.

He said there would be a team of 14 for the men and women.

“We have about 56 in the Games target squad and 20 of these are players are based outside Port Moresby, including four in Australia, so it will take some organising to get everyone here for the camp,” Lae said.

He said the Port Moresby players were using the High Performance Training Centre at 4-Mile to do strength and condition training.

“We hope to have everyone here for the camp.”

 He said if players from other centres wanted to travel to Port Moresby and train in the capital city, they could so at their own expense.

“A number of players from outside Port Moresby have been unable to train with the rest of the squad at the High Performance Centre, with funding the main issue.”