Revised season for rugby league

Greetings to all our rugby league family and welcome to our ninth edition of Fulltime Reserve, a weekly column to discuss all matters rugby league in our favourite newspaper The National.
Last week marked a momentous period for rugby league in many respects which saw some milestones for the Papua New Guinea Football League (PNGRFL) towards the start and delivery of its revised programmes.
Importantly, last Friday, PNGRFL and the PNG National Rugby League Competition a consultative meeting for the kick-off of the Digicel Cup as approved by the state of emergency (SOE) controller.
This was a particularly significant date because on March 18, PNGRFL made the unprecedented decision to suspend all rugby league programmes across the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
PNGRFL was the first entity in PNG to make this decision which was followed by the Governments’ declaration of the SOE on March 23.
PNGRFL made the bold and deliberate decision to suspend all games until June 5.
We held our first rugby league engagement with all rugby league franchise managers, team medical officers, match officials and game administrators to discuss the start of the PNGRFL calendar with the Digicel Cup kick-off. Some may say its coincidence but we believe its providence.
The PNGRFL set a deliberate date and schedule and our team worked with all our stakeholders to ensure the we were successful in delivering on our plans, including developing the “Banis Protocol”, and getting the controller’s approval for the sport to begin its revised programmes.
The next day (Saturday), PNGRFL successfully hosted our seventh annual general meeting at Bluff Inn Motel in Port Moresby, which saw the presentation of last year’s annual report and audited financial statements together with the election of new PNGRFL board members, among other important business.
These two landmark events marked the beginning of PNGRFL’s revised calendar, including the start of all our domestic programmes which we will begin rolling out over the coming weeks.
Let me take this time to acknowledge the tireless efforts of all our leadership team at PNGRFL who worked diligently behind the scenes with our partners and stakeholders to deliver on these milestones to set the platform for the rest of the year.
This week, rugby league celebrated the 500-day countdown to next year’s Rugby League World Cup in England with the announcement of host cities for the competing nations.
The PNG LNG Kumuls will be based in Warrington while the Oil Search PNG Orchids will be based in Leeds.
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Until next week, may the grace, love and care of our Good Lord be with you.

Cheers,
Sandis