www.nrl.com/png-score-shock-roun ... fault.aspx A good win away from home. I can't see anyone beating them in PNG, so if they can win away as well, they will give this title a big shake in their first year.

www.nrl.com/png-score-shock-roun ... fault.aspx A good win away from home. I can't see anyone beating them in PNG, so if they can win away as well, they will give this title a big shake in their first year.

looking forward to tracking their progress this year!

There was a bit in a Sydney paper this morning that said Mark Mexico was about to sign with Manly and the PNG coach said he was happy to lose any of his players to another team and he had 15000 young guys ready to step up to fill any vacancies.

Bloody hell 15000 wish we in Britain had 15000

Papua-New Guineas represent the wave of the future.

15,000 kids ready to step up.

I foresee them in the NRL before too long.

Not in the next twenty years, if ever, in the real world.

It is a severely under developed country with a massive crime and corruption problem. I can't see it in the next 20 years.

Your description could also be applied to large areas of Wext Yorkshire, yet we have 4 or 5 top flight professional clubs from that area.

The PNG is in the Queensland Cup for a reason: to prepare for eventual entry into the NRL.

Everyone knows the problems of PNG. This is a period when the rugby league authorities learn how to adapt to the problems. There is a powerful lobby in favour of PNG entry, and it includes the legendary coach Wayne Bennett.

I am sure that a club from Perth and one from Brisbane/South Queensland have more immediate priority for the NRL. However it is not fanciful to expect that PNG, along with Wellington, will be seriously considered after Perth and the second Brisbane club.

I didn't realise things were that bad in GB but then we have a government with no scruples so perhaps it's not a surprise

PNG has a larger population and greater GDP than all the rest of the Melanesian and Polynesian countries combined, and because they are resource rich, they have been growing their GDP by 8% to 10% in recent years.
They have a growing middle class, many of whom are educated at RL schools in Queensland.
Ten years ago they couldn't have afforded to run their own semi pro league or put what is basically a pro side into the Queensland cup, but now they can, and in another 10 years their economy will have doubled again and they will be well able to afford an NRL side.

PNG or Perth?

I can't see a PNG team joining the NRL before I die...

As long as the Hunters serve as a direct route for the players to be scouted by NRL clubs it'll have been a major success.

The NRL has too many options within Aus to worry about expanding to, that's before looking at New Zealand or PNG.

They have a qland cup due to the png govt giving them money they have been given by Australia. If this is an appropriate way to spend aid given the lack of clean water, education and security in the country is highly debatable.

If anyone really thinks a png NRL team can generate $20million a year an NRL team needs to be successful they are kidding themselves. Nice dream but that's all it is. If the game could generate those figures they could have their own fully professional league.

It will be Perth and Brisbane 2 in 2017/18 then it will be another 8-10 years before any further expansion and it is very likely to be a second NZ side and either Adelaide or CQ so that leaves png coming in around 2035!

lets be realistic even to a country as poor as PNG, $20m Aussie dollars is a pretty negligable sum.

That is a kind of negativism and backwardness that is more appropriate to the RFL than to Australia.

There will certainly be Perth and Brisbane/South Queensland NRL teams in 2018. But there can be an expansion to NZ (probably Wellington) and PNG shortly thereafter due to the fact that there is a non-Australian players base to build the PNG and NZ teams around in the near future. It only requires 4 or 5 Aussies in each of the PNG and NZ sides to make the teams viable. The money is there in Wellington, and in PNG, where the government and private corporations will gladly stump up the cash. The main challenge in PNG is in building a new stadium and a few budget hotel complexes that are secure for Australian and Kiwi fan visitors. Wellington and PNG will bring the number of NRL clubs to 20.

I would hope that there would be admissions to the NRL of teams from Christchurch and Adelaide in 2025. They will balance out the NRL nationally and internationally with 22 clubs.

The final candidates -- from Central Queensland or South Queensland, and Fiji -- are possible in 2030. That would make the NRL a 24 club competition, with each club playing each other club once, and the home and away for each set of clashes alternating each year.

Build a 100k seater in port moresby and they would fill it every week for the NRL if prices are okay, it's time to give this country what it deserves.....

I meant to say 10k. Then again, they probably could fill 100k too.

They are building a 25k stadium for the pacific games. That is not the issue. Value to the NRL TV rights, safety (there is a reason the hunters are not playing in moresby), ability to generate enough funds sustainably and playing strength with no imports are much much bigger issues for them. Would love to see it but it isn't going to happen ianytime soon, or in the the not so soon.

They need 10 k seating -- for the middle class and visiting fans --- and 20 k standing room for the non-middle class locals. That would be a 30 k capacity, which I think could be controllable.

The NRL (and their media partners/corporates/sponsors) will see far more value in placing teams in CQ, Brisbane II, Adelaide, Tasmania, New Zealand II and III....even the wilds of Perth long before PNG gets a look in. The insurance premiums alone for visiting players would be crippling.....the damage that could be done by 1 negative event at a game over there will far outweigh any "supposed" positives.

As for a NRL side form PNG doing "wonders for their game" I give you exhibit A:
Catalan Dragons and the performances of the French national side since they joined SL in 2006......Scotland, Wales and Ireland they can beat, but the Island sides and the big 3 are out of their league.

It was on telly here in Sydney yesterday afternoon. They did alright. Was good to watch.

I saw the PNG national team having a training session at Narrabeen before the World Cup. They all look the same size and build, it was hard to identify who would play where. Anyway what made the RL heart warmer was to see the players' faces when Manly finished training and a couple of the more famous players like Watmough, Brett Stewart, Wolfman and Cherry-Evans just walked over to say hello and welcome them. It was like they just met their gods. Massive smiles and loads of photos on their phones. Wonderful stuff.

Every game the Hunters play will be broadcast on PNG TV with local commentary.
There is already speculation that they will be the top rated shows in PNG.

www.pngfacts.com/5/post/2014/03/ ... s-all.html

www.pngfacts.com/5/post/2014/03/ ... s-all.html

I saw the last ten minutes of the game at the Trinity Hotel in Sydney's Surry Hills, in the company of scores of screaming Sydneysiders, and a handful of sophisticated people from the French consulate. I must say that the PNG Hunters were impressive on the day, and they can still improve!