PETE’S PUNCHLINE – The National

People, Pete’s Punchline makes a long awaited return this week (and hopefully continues for the forseeable future).
Anybody miss me? While I’ve been “offline” a whole heap of stuff has gone down but rest assured from here on in yours truly will be on hand to keep things real as well as take the mickey out situations, people and issues that crop up in sport daily.
I love PNG. People here have their own ways of doing things from how they play a sport to how they support it. There’s never a dull moment. Take for example how the fans at the NFS reacted with calls of “haus sik, haus sik, haus sik” when poor old Semi Radradra got his head rattled from a David Loko take down in the Prime Minister XIII fixture last month. Those same fans then mobbed the big Fijian after the game for autographs, souvenirs and whatever else they could get their hands on. Only in PNG.
More evidence that some parents name their children not after their sporting heroes but after other equally notable individuals: Schwarzenegger Ekali (rugby union) and Stallone Fong (snooker).
Must be tough trying to emulate those characters, I’ll bet.
Don’t be disparaged sometimes being named after a great in one sport sees a guy be a champion in another sport. Wallaby halfback Will Genia’s orginial name was “Sanchez” after the great Mexican featherweight champion of the late 1970s and early 1980s – Salvador Sanchez. And look how Will turned out.
The FIFA Under-20 World Cup is such a professional event. This is definitely one tournament where the organisers have every area micro-managed down to the minute detail. Take sponsorship for example. Anyone wearing any brand that is not the official sponsor or support sponsors of the event will be asked to remove the offending item of clothing off before entering a venue to wtach a game. If that is not practical then the individual will have tape tacked on to their person to cover the rival logos etc…
People be warned. Bring a spare change of cloths and footware just in case. On the bright side, this World Cup has some of the cheapest ticket prices going around. From as low as K2 a pop this tournament is open to anyone and everyone. And the great thing about watching the World Cup at the four venues in Port Moresby is that there won’t be any nose-bleed sections – every fan will be close enough to the action to enjoy the thrills and spills.
Kudos to EM TV, our oldest TV station. Even though they’ve been muscled out of the NRL rights and other areas of programming at least they are making an effort to show content that some portions of the viewing public will appreciate: The Barramundis international matches against the visiting Namibians over the last week and the National Provincial Championship 7s the week before. Thanks guys. – PGTP