Team Kumul duo give advice on Kokopo trip

 By ELIZABETH VUVU

THE local rugby league competition in East New Britain has been boosted with a coaching clinic put on by Team Kumul currently in Kokopo.

Team Kumul general manager, Matthew Natusch and high performance manager, Neil Dunkley arrived in Kokopo over the weekend to inspect facilities at the Kalabond Oval for the Prime Minister’s XIII game in September.

During the coaching clinic at the Agmark Gurias gym yesterday, Natusch said while they were in Kokopo to inspect facilities for the big game, they decided to conduct clinics for the local league.

He said coaching clinics were part of their long term planning after the Rugby League World Cup and the would be conducted nationwide.

Kokopo was the second centre out of Port Moresby for the coaching clinic to be conducted.

The clinic yesterday, was attended by schoolboys rugby coordinators in the province who were told by both Kumul trainers that they must feel free to tell them (trainers) what they were keen to learn.

The clinic discussed aspects of training, injury management, recovery and momentum.

Both men gave presentations on how training was conducted with the Kumul players to prepare them for big games.

Natusch said K100,000 alone was spent on training the Kumuls and this was valuable for the team as training was an important part of the game.

Both men told the clinic that ENB was lucky to have the expertise of coach Michael Marum who was also part of the Kumuls management and those involved in the code should not hesitate to approach him for advice on how to improve their game.

Dunkley said it was observed from the Digicel Cup competition that all players had the tendency of running all over the park instead of situating themselves in a particular area/zone and running down those lines.

He added the school boys rugby league programmes must teach players to attain a high standard and skill level in the basics of catching, passing and tackling.

The two will depart Kokopo tomorrow.