Stakeholder support vital

The National Sports

Greetings to our rugby league family and welcome to our 25th edition of Fulltime Reserve, a weekly column to discuss all matters rugby league in our favourite newspaper The National.
The Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League (PNGRFL) calendar year begins on Nov 1 each year and ends on Oct 31 the following year.
This week heralds the closing of a difficult 2020 season for rugby league and the country due to the disruption caused as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year when the pandemic began, PNGRFL and rugby league faced serious threats not only to the football calendar but more so the operations of the PNGRFL, as expected corporate sponsorships and commercial revenue sources were greatly impacted.
PNGRFL realised that if we did not act to mitigate the commercial and football operations risks, the sport faced the threat of losing all the gains it has made in the last seven years.
Confronted with this unprecedented scenario, PNGRFL promptly developed a revised calendar and work plan for the year and reached out to its partners who committed to support the revised plans in spite of the challenges they faced.
We appreciate the continued support of our committed family of corporate partners and stakeholders who enabled us to successfully deliver our revised calendar for this season.
PNGRFL also acknowledges our partners who agreed to defer their support to the 2021 season as we had to forego some of our other major programmes due to the pandemic.
Their commitment to continue to partner PNGRFL to deliver our 2021 season is also acknowledged and appreciated.
We make special mention of the:

  • Kumuls — PNG LNG (Exxon Mobil PNG), Boroko Motors, Coca Cola Amatil (PNG), Prima Smallgoods, Trukai Industries and Digicel (PNG) who continued to support the programme resulting in the delivery of our nation-wide high-performance initiative by coach Michael Marum and his team;
  • SP Hunters — SP Brewery, Boroko Motors, Trukai Industries, Digicel (PNG), PNG LNG (Exxon Mobil), Prima Smallgoods and Coca-Cola Amatil (PNG);
  • Digicel Cup — Digicel (PNG), SP Brewery, Motor Vehicles Insurance Ltd and Boroko Motors;
  • Affiliate Leagues — We acknowledge the support of the many businesses and individuals who ensured several of our affiliated leagues and their respective clubs were able to participated in their respective competitions this year.

On behalf of the rugby league family across PNG, we thank you for your support.
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Until next week, may the grace, love and care of our Good Lord be with you.

Cheers,
Sandis