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Could PNG become part of the National Rugby League competition?
Sport COULD PNG BE JOINING THE NRL?
BY LEMACH LAVARI | PHOTOGRAPH: LEMACH LAVARI
The premier Australian Rugby League competition, the National Rugby League (NRL), is the most followed sporting competition in Papua New Guinea. Rugby league is considered PNG’s national sport because of its popularity, and it has become part of modern PNG culture and produced local superstars (see Justin Olam story Page 20). The broadcast of the NRL in PNG has helped in the growing popularity of the sport.
When the Brisbane-based Redcliff Dolphins team was announced by the NRL as the 17th club to join the competition from 2023, talk turned to who might be the 18th team.
Rugby league great and former Australian national representative, Mathew Johns, put forward the idea of the 18th team being a “Pacific nation side”, arguing it would be a way to harness the large number of talented rugby league players in the Pacific.
Johns said the Pacific has become the heartland of recruitment for the NRL and a team comprising PNG, Samoa, Tonga and Cook Islands could easily be the 18th NRL team.
Johns further suggested that the team should be located in PNG because, unlike other Pacific Island countries, PNG has the financial potential to back an NRL team.
The PNG government has in the past supported the idea of PNG having a team in the NRL. In 2008, then Prime Minister, the late Sir Michael Somare, launched the PNG NRL Bid. The bid aimed to
The SP PNG Hunters during a training session.
have a PNG team in the NRL by 2011. However, PNG didn’t have a sizeable stadium to host games and lacked a development system for junior rugby league.
While the bid didn’t achieve its primary goal, focus shifted to developing the sport at the junior level, and elite player development. In 2014, PNG joined the Queensland state competition with the SP PNG Hunters. The Hunters won the premiership in 2017.
PNG now has a 20,000-capacity stadium in Port Moresby and a school rugby league competition with a junior development system. In February 2021, PNG’s Prime Minister, James Marape, said PNG was aiming to have a team in the NRL by 2025.
However, PNG’s participation must make business sense for the NRL. In early 2021, senior NRL reporter Brad Walter estimated that for a Brisbane team to join the NRL it would need about $A15 million (K37.7 million) for start up costs and an annual revenue of $A30 million (K75.5 million). This gives an idea of the costs involved and assumes that there is a fan base that can generate enough revenue annually and a talent pool that can provide elite players to compete at the NRL.
