Radio Australia interview this afternoon with PNG CEO Brad Tassel.
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/in...-the-australian-national-rugby-league/1193370
PNG admistrators are hoping the inclusion will give their players valuable exposure and hopefully lead to careers in the NRL.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Brad Tassell, chief executive of the PNG NRL Foundation
TASSELL: We've had to jump over quite a few hurdles and run through a few hoops, but we're very close now. We expect that hopefully that we'll be in line to make an announcement, official announcement about it within two weeks time.
COUTTS: Now some of those hurdles, of course, have been money and sponsorship, branding, team colours, all those sorts of things. So how much of that's finalised now?
TASSELL: A lot of that is actually finalised. I mean we've been working on this for two years now and the team will actually fall under the banner of the PNGRFSL, which is the governing body of rugby league in the country. So it's been two years of planning, it's been two years of sourcing funding and sponsorship and we've come up with the preliminary names and colours and the structure of the football operations, and how the players go into train, the whole triple operation structure and administration structure. So we're pretty ready to go once the button is pressed.
COUTTS: How likely are you to retain the PNG players in this actual team and not wind up as the feeder to the rest of the NRL Competition and do some scalping of these players?
TASSELL: Well, we've actually, one of the main reasons for it is we'd actually like to see players get picked up by NRL Clubs. We'd like to see more PNG players playing in the NRL, which obviously improves our potential international performances on the international scene. I think if you've seen recent games between Samoa and Tonga, it's made up of entirely NRL-based players for those teams and I think if you look at the World Cup squads, particularly for Fiji and Samoa, it's made up of all NRL players. So the formation of this team gives us an opportunity for locally-based players to show what they've got on a big stage and that's very important to us, very important for the nation, very important for those guys who are playing rugby league in PNG.
COUTTS: Are there enough players if you keep losing them to the NRL competition, are there enough players in PNG to keep the team on the pitch once the Queensland Cup gets underway?
TASSELL: Oh yeah, there's literally thousands of players out there that, a lot that we do know of, some that we haven't even seen, which have the potential to play at Kumul or NRL level, yeah. It's a rugby league-mad country, it's a sleeping giant of rugby league in the world and through this program, it's given an opportunity for these players to be able to show their wares and show the talent that they do have and I think people will be pretty surprised. It's likely to be a continuous production line of rugby league talent into the Australian competitions in the future.
COUTTS; How does the Queensland Cup work?
TASSELL: Ah well the Queensland Cup - I think it's a 24-round season, so it's 12 home games, 12 away games. We play right across the State, obviously teams based in Brisbane. There's Rockhampton, there's also the Sunshine Coast, there's Cairns, there's Mackay as well. So it will be a full home and away season for us, which is great, because we get the players used to travel and also get the players in front of talent scouts every second week in Australia as well.
And look, players will be drawn from right across the country. We recently had implemented a zone, a national championship for players who play outside of the NRL Digicel Cup national competition and we've scouted about four to six players from that championships to also take part in a Queensland Cup camp in November, plus Digicel players and current players who are playing for the Kumuls.
COUTTS: If this does actually eventuate and PNG gets a team into the NRL, the Queensland Cup. Where will they be based and will they get home games?
TASSELL: Ah yes, well that was one of the criteria that we had to work with the QRL. At the moment, the main venue, the Lloyd Robson Oval will be basically on ice come October and a brand new stadium will be built there in time for 2015.
So for the first year, in 2014, we're looking at an option of either playing home games in Australia - so, say for instance, based in Cairns or the alternative venue is in Rabaul, in Kalabond Stadium, which is a venue that has been approved as a suitable playing venue by the QRL and also by the NRL, because the PM 13 game is being played there on the 29th of September. So we've got a couple of options there. Our preferred option would be to play all of our home games in year one in Rabaul, but it maybe a mixture of home games in Rabaul and Cairns as well.
COUTTS: All right, Brad. Now just once again, when will this be rubber stamped and finally get this up and running for PNG?
TASSELL: Ah, we're just working on a couple of final things with the Queensland Rugby League and as I said it's a fairly long process and it's not an easy task as most people can imagine. So working through a couple of final logistical issues.
We hope to have the official announcement within two weeks time. So possibly just before or just after the Prime Minister's match in Rabaul.
