President makes tough call

By ROBINSON LEKA
PAPUA New Guinea Volleyball Association Incorporated (PNGVAI) will take a tougher stance on the performances of the men’s and women’s national teams, says new president Edward Aisi.
He said the national teams had been poorly managed due to problems in coaching responsibilities and player management. “We have really good teams that represent the country but we just have bad coaches and managers, and one or two players with an attitude problem,” Aisi told The National.
“There must be a balance between the quality of players, coaches and managers so we are going to tap into all facets of our national teams to identify the problems and fix them.
“We want to make sure that manager and coaches live up to their roles and one thing that I’ve noticed is that we have coaches training teams on the basics again which is what trainers are supposed to do.
“We will be bringing in trainers to prepare the players so when he or she thinks the team is ready then they can hand the team over to the coach because the coach can’t be doing everything.
“We’ve identified the problem players from last year and I will make sure that discipline is maintained at the national level.”
Aisi said discipline was a priority among representative players with the governing body now looking to raise the standards in the national teams.
He said there would be more emphasis on the women’s team after they had been dropped from Team PNG for last year’s Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.