PNGRFL appoints Marum as high performance manager

By NATHAN WOTI
UPNG Journalism Student

PAPUA New Guinea Kumuls coach Michael Marum has been appointed as national high performance manager and the National High Performance Centre in Kokopo which comes under football operations of PNG Rugby Football League (PNGRFL), chief executive Reatau Rau.
Rau said Marum would be in-charge of the country’s rugby league high performance programme.
“Michael will be responsible for coaches, trainers, referees and programmes,” Rau said.
“He will work closely with Toksy Nema, who runs the game PNGRFL game development and Arnold Krewanty, head of schools rugby league programmes.
“Obviously, he has moved on from the Hunters, but will work closely with coach Matt Church to do with Hunters, when they are getting ready to go to Kumuls.”
Rau said Marum would still be PNG Kumuls coach up to the 2021 World Cup, but for the time being he would manage the high performance centre.
The former Hunters coach is set to take up his new job starting with the New Guinea Island pilot project, launched on Saturday in Kokopo, East New Britain.
Rau said there were plans to build high performance centres in other parts of the country.
“We still haven’t decide where we will build in the other three regions (Momase, Highlands, Southern). First we have to build the high performance managers and their roles, and then the technical people that will help support them,” he said.
“There are people there were identified already, but before we roll it out, we have to make sure that everything is within our budget. The most important thing is to wait till 2022 to really see how the NGI pilot project will progress and from there we can start moving into other centres.”