We’re confident of better results

Hello everyone, welcome to the 21st ‘Churchie’s Comment’ for the year in your favourite rugby league newspaper — The National.
Last weekend, our game against Mackay Cutters was postponed due to Southeast Queensland going into lockdown. The game will now be played on July 24.
This week will see us face Sunshine Coast Falcons at the Sunshine Coast Stadium. The Falcons probably have been disappointed with their start to the season.
The SP Hunters are in a similar position in that regard. We have competed hard in games but have had periods where we haven’t been able to hold out against the momentum.
It’s been a trend this year, not only our games but the National Rugby League (NRL) as well. We’ve seen some large margins this year across the NRL.
Margins of 19-plus points in the NRL has grown to a staggering 43 per cent in games this year.
We all want to see more attacking styles in and across the game, but I think we all prefer to see even contests as well.
There are a number of reasons leading to higher scores, the new rules adopted for last season and additional rules this season. The problem for some clubs is that they recruited their talent on long deals under the old rules. With the game getting faster, players with better leg speed have benefited.
The clubs that recruited bigger and slower athletes under the old rules have been disadvantaged in the new game. Teams are still adapting to the rule changes, but we should also see club rosters adapt to quicker athletes.
One of the benefits of the new games is the re-emergence of footballers over athletes. By this, I mean instinctive players who might not be physical specimens of the game. I’m talking about younger, small players who play off-the-cuff rugby league.
Much has been made of players such as Sam Walker and Reece Walsh. These guys, who are aged 19 and 18 respectively, have started their careers fantastically, blessed with speed, evasion, vision and ball-playing skill.
It has been refreshing to see this come back into our game, the elevation of game speed means less time to set up for structured play. Years gone by, this would have been less effective with the wrestle and slowing down the play.
It’s something we encourage our Hunters to do, use their vision and natural flair for the game. Sure, we have target areas on the field or against the opposition to build momentum. We definitely want to have some structure to what we want to do, we just have to learn to scan for opportunities more often.
When players get to the Hunters, we try to educate them towards how the modern game is played. Players have ingrained habits that are counter productive to what we are trying to do at the Queensland Intrust Super Cup (ISC) level. Digicel Cup franchises are set up to win their competition, so I understand how and why they go about their business.
The Digicel Cup competition has a huge potential to expand the Hunters and PNG LNG Kumuls programmes. The habits I coach are the same as what NRL coaches would expect.
This, in turn, means that when coach Michael Marum assembles his squad, the Hunters players are receiving similar coaching to other ISC or NRL players joining the Kumuls team.
This is an important role of the Hunters, all of what I do should be aimed at producing better-coached players to the national team. Collectively, as a game, we need to help the level above and below us for better alignment across PNG rugby league.
Until next week, stay safe, play safe and let’s all respect and be kind to each other.

Cheers,
Matt