Three big name sides miss out in AFL season

By ROBINSON AKIS
FORMER champions and heavyweights of Port Moresby AFL, Koboni, Moresby and Wests will be the missing links on the field when round one of the season proper competition for the seniors start at the Amini Park tomorrow.
Their absence from this year’s competition is not known but AFL PNG development officer Walter Yangomina said, their non-appearance at the pre-season competition be one of the reasons why they re not included in the draws for this season.
“They can perhaps prepare themselves for next year if they wish to re-enter the competition,” Yangomina said.
The three were the major finalists two seasons ago (2009) when Koboni won the grand final over Moresby with Wests finishing third after their preliminary final loss to Moresby.
Obviously, the competition without these three legendary teams would be like having food without salt.
But Yangomina assured all “rules” followers that the new breed of players who had come up the ranks to form new teams through AFL PNG junior development programmes should be enough to take their breath away.
“We have dynamic young teams like Gordon Kokofas, Uni Tigers and Bomana Powers, predominantly made up of talented youngsters on AFL PNG scholarship programme at De La Salle.
“They should provide highly competitive and entertaining football to give all rules football followers their money’s worth,” Yangomina said.
The other three teams that will be taking part in the six-team competition this year will be Defence, KDC Dockers and Boroko.
Boroko is the former champion club of the 1980s that won four premiership flags under the coaching genius of the current BSP chief executive officer, Ian Clyne. Clyne is also the chairman of the new AFL Port Moresby advisory board.
The other board members are John Kali, Gerea Aopi, Veari Maha, Patrick Amini, Martin Bakani, Andrew Cadzow, Bede Moore and Richard Aupae.
Meanwhile, the round one matches tomorrow will see Defence take on Gordon Kokofas at 1pm, followed by Uni Tiger against Dockers at 2:20pm.
The main match will be between Boroko and Bomana at 3:40pm.
Yangomin urged all teams to turn up on time or cop the penalties – reduced playing time or forfeitures in extreme cases.
“All games should start on time and I urged  teams to take heed and get to the oval at least an hour early to  prepare for their matches.