Payback time

By ISAAC LIRI
THE SP Papua New Guinea Hunters are keen to square the ledger against the Sunshine Coast Falcons tomorrow when the two sides meet in their Intrust Super Cup round 6 fixture at Sunshine Coast Stadium, Queensland.
The Falcons broke PNG hearts last year, in the opening week of the finals, when they edged the home side 18-12 at the National Football Stadium, Port Moresby, and while coach Michael Marum has maintained his side is focused on continuing their great away form in 2017, there is no doubt revenge is a motivating factor.
Added to the mix will be Justin Olam facing his former club when he runs out in the gold-and-black strip of the hosts.
Marum said the memories of being beaten by the Falcons last year in the first week of the finals were still on their minds and a win over the Melbourne Storm feeder club would erase that hurt.
“The game is going to a tough one because they are the ones that came up here last year and beat us in the qualifying final and that’s still in our minds so we go down with that in the back of our minds,” Marum said.
“There is only one thing we can do and that is to play our hearts out as a team and the result will come.
“The Falcons had a good win against Wynnum Manly last week and they’ll be tough.
“They’ve got one of our own boys in there with Justin Olam and we just have to turn up and play our own game.
“Justin will be a threat because he knows our style of play and we haven’t changed much of from last year.
“But we are just concentrating on our preparations instead of worrying too much about the opposition and we want to go there and get the win but we know that it will be a hard one,” Marum said.
Even though the game will be seen as a chance for some redemption, Marum said both sides had new players and the contest would be a little different.
“We’ve seen their footage and we’ve identified some weak spots and we will try to get points of that.
“We’ve also reviewed last year’s game and what went wrong for us and reminded ourselves how the feeling was in camp afterward so everyone’s looking forward to facing the Falcons again and since this will be the only time we meet in the regular season we want to make it count,” Marum said.
David Loko and Paul Wawa drop out of the 20-man squad.
“David just started training this week so he’ll have to stay back along with Paul Wawa and our PNGRFL academy forward Muka Peter Kulu will have the opportunity to travel with the team as the 18th man.
“Muka is looking forward to the trip as it is his first time to travel overseas so it’s a reward for his efforts from the past weeks of training and he is on standby to play if required,” Marum said.
The team leaves for Brisbane today and travel to the Sunshine Coast for their 4.30pm game tomorrow.
SP Hunters: 1. Bland Abavu 2. Stargroth Amean 3. Israel Eliab. 4. Willie Minoga 5. Karo Kauna Junior 6. Ase Boas (C) 7. Watson Boas. 8. Henry Wan 9. Gahuna Silas 10. Esau Siune 11. Nixon Put 12. Moses Meninga 13. Stanton Albert; Reserves: 14. Noel Joel 15. Rhadley Brawa 16. Enoch Maki 17. Lawrence Tu’u 18. Muka Peter Kulu.