Northern AFL school comp starts

The AFLPNG’s Northern Region school competition will start today and end tomorrow at Eriku Oval in Lae, Morobe.
The competition will feature 13 schools plus three junior teams from the Lae AFL competition.
Northern regional manager Daniel Meli said they have 16 teams for this year’s competition and all have three divisions each for both boys and girls (U-12, U-13 and U-15).
Meli said because students from Mount Hagen, Western Highlands, could not travel to Lae for the competition; they have strategised to have two teams in each division (U-13 and U-15) compete in the carnival.
He said an expected 100 boys and girls in each of the three divisions would take part in the competition.
“Currently we have 400 students on training and preparation is underway for the carnival.
“We also have five U-13 boys who will travel this year to Brisbane and five U-17 girls who will travel to Cairns; they are part of this carnival.”
The manager said the development programme plan in the city area was on target while they needed to work slowly to other areas outside of it.
He said the Northern region area covered provinces in Momase and Highlands.
“Due to less resources and support from business houses, we can’t reach some of the provinces where AFL was played in the late 1980s and 90s,” he said.
“The concept of this programme would benefits kids who wish to travel overseas,” he said.
“It is a pathway which will give them chances in life through playing with AFL premier teams in Australia to find a career for their life and family.”