Olam unsure about break

The National Sports

By PARKER TAMBUA
PAPUA New Guinea international and National Rugby League (NRL) premiership winner Justin Olam says he is unsure about returning to the country for a break prior to the pre-season.
The former Lae Tiger and SP Hunter emulated Melbourne and PNG legend Marcus Bai when he bagged his maiden NRL title in the Storm’s 26-20 win over the Penrith Panthers in Sydney last month.
Asked by The National whether he would return to PNG for a break after the title win, the 26-year-old said: “I am not sure when I’ll come back home.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many countries, including PNG and Australia, to impose measures such as orders for travellers to go into quarantine ­— something Olam is not too keen on.
“To be honest, I don’t want to go into quarantine,” Olam said.
“I have been living inside the NRL bubble on the Sunshine Coast for most of the season and that is already too much for me.” Playing away from their AAMI Park home ground, the Storm have been based on the Sunshine Coast since round 10 in July.
Olam became the fifth Kumul to lift the Provan-Summons trophy after David Westley, Marcus Bai, Neville Costigan and Alex Johnston but only the second home-grown talent to do so after West New Briton Bai.
Meanwhile, Olam — who scored the opening try in the grand final — said he was looking forward to watching tomorrow night’s State of Origin series opener which will be played at the Adelaide Oval.
“Congratulations to my teammates who got selected,” he said.
Melbourne’s Josh Addo-Carr (New South Wales Blues), Cameron Munster, Felise Kaufusi, Brenko Lee, Christian Welch and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui (Queensland Maroons) have been named for the opener.

27 comments

  • Stay there and continue to strive for better. It’s a good choice for you and your rugby career.
    Your place here won’t run away… hehe
    You can come anytime when the time is right!

  • He former Lae Tiger and SP Hunter emulated Melbourne and PNG legend Marcus Bai when he bagged his maiden NRL title in the Storm’s 26-20 win over the Penrith Panthers in Sydney last month.
    Is the name Marcus bai correct in this paragraph? National please confirm.

      • Tupla, these are grammatically correct.
        1. The sentence “..former Lae Tiger and SP Hunter..” refers to Olam while the part “…emulated Melbourne and PNG legend Marcus Bai..” refers to Bai alone. Yes it can be confusing for some.
        2. “Briton” is a native from the UK and Ireland (Great Britain)… similarly, a person from West New Britain can be individually identified as a West New Briton.

        Hope this helps. Sorry i was bored.

      • Briton is correct. That’s a shorter form of saying ” Bai from West New Britain”.

        That’s the English language at it’s best.

    • Nothing grammatically wrong in this paragraph. Emulate means to match or surpass . Olam is matching what the legend Marcus Bai has set during his playing contract with the Storms.
      That’s how I simply understand it.

    • Those critics on the journalist are all wrong. Try read the read it slowly word by word and you’ll understand whom the journalist is referring to . The former Lae Snax Tiger and SP Hunter refers to Olam and “emulated Melbourne and PNG legend Marcus Bai” is like the other way of saying lifted Melbourne and followed the footsteps of Bai. Lets not be quick to criticize but rather read and understand before making comments. Thankyou

      • Sammy, I think you are the only person that read that particular statement that way.
        Everyone else is on the same page.

  • Can the Journalist check his statement .The Former lae tiger and SP hunter emulated malbourne and PNG legent Marcus Bai correctly stated???.

  • For those that are confused:
    The part of the sentence where it reads “..former Lae Tiger and SP Hunter..” refers to Olam while the segment that states “…emulated Melbourne and PNG legend Marcus Bai..” refers to Bai alone.

    • Correct Sammy.

      We really need to understand the English language well.

      Those are all correctly stated.

  • Yal Yomba..You made the right decision out of other PNG overseas base players who left because of family commitment.

  • DKB waaaa….
    Congrates to you from Dinga 1- Konoma, you have made us proud and our youngers are still talking.
    Time will come when you will step on your soil but you have to wait patiently because when you come over here, all rules of COVID-19 will be broken. You will be getting more hugs then you can imaging so its safer to stay there then coming home.

  • To Benny, Nux and Esimbra I see no problem with the statement of the journalists nor his choice of words. The only problem I see is the your spelling errors when your tried to rewrite his statement.

  • Noken busy, PNG ba stap, kilim skin lik2x lo Australia pastime na u lapun na kam back,ehehe

  • Sammy, I guess, those who commented on Journalist’s grammatical errors must be those top Journalist from New York Timeline…ahaha……

  • The former Lae Tiger and SP Hunter (JO) ” I bihainim leg mark blo” Melbourne and PNG legend Marcus Bai ….. Writer is not trying to shift the credit… The result of their personal ambitious commitment has given us what it takes to be proud of….thumbs up for all our boys playing out there…. “Emulate” simply means …bihainim leg mark.

  • Yes, the entire life of man’s prosperity lies heavily on his career, especially in foreign land where money is the only source of life. Secondly, Olam worked very hard to reached the level today and need to keep pace of it and stay blessed in Aussie. He is a winner who never quits. Quitters never win, winners never quits.

  • Congratulation!!we applauded you for putting the country to the face of the world, your creative art leave as a legend to the upcoming ones, my advice to you is complete your contract coz it’s an aging thing..

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