Women, girls play vital role

Greetings to all our rugby league family and welcome to our fifth edition of Fulltime Reserve, a weekly column to discuss all matters rugby league in our favourite newspaper The National.
Firstly, we send our Happy Mother Day wishes to all the mum out there and thank you all for your love, and the many sacrifices and contributions each of you have made and continue to make in your respective families and communities.
In the rugby league family, we acknowledge the immense contributions made by all our mothers and generally all women and girls in Papua New Guinea.
Those of us who are involved in rugby league know that without the support and work of our many selfless women as family members, officials, volunteers, supporters and/or players, the progress and following our game has achieved in PNG would not be possible.
Whilst women’s rugby league in PNG was only formally accepted into the PNG Rugby Football League (PNGRFL) competition structure in 2014 and the first national team (Oil Search PNG Orchids) in 2017, the involvement, influence and motivation our women and girls continue to provide for the game and our country is encouraging and inspirational.
Who will ever forget that memorable moment at the Oil Search National Football Stadium in November, when the crowd rose as one when Shirley Joe scooted from dummy-half and beat the English defence to score the winning try in the Orchids’ their historical first test victory.
The stadium raptured with joy, pride, patriotism and tears when the Orchids over against the might of England.
Rugby league would not be the national sport of PNG without the active involvement of our women and girls and we are blessed and proud of their contribution in our game.
PNGRFL is committed to support and promote the growth of the women’s game and more importantly, continue to rally the passion our people have for rugby league as a platform to empower and inspire girls and women to overcome cultural and physical constraints to have better opportunities for growth and development.
We invite our readers to follow us on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and provide your views and feedback as we update these pages with interesting new stories, events and developments around the game daily.
We have introduced an interesting new segment called the “Half-Time” where we conduct live interviews with our elite rugby league players to discuss life, rugby league and the future.
In our first episode last week, we spoke to David Mead in France.
This week, we speak to Rhyse Martin in the United Kingdom and next week, we speak to Justin Olam in Australia.
Follow and watch us live on the Fulltime Reserve on Facebook at 5.30pm every Friday.
We can also be contacted on [email protected] to provide feedback on issues covered in this column weekly or ask questions on issues that you would like us to discuss.
Until next week, may the grace, love and care of our Good Lord be with you.

Cheers,
Sandis