The great thing about the Fiji set up over the past few years has been the collaborated effort between the people based in Australia working with the Fiji A team and the Fijian based FNRL.
The concept of the Fiji A team was born out of the desire to see Fijian players being able to play representative rugby league and one man in particular, Phill Browne has to take a lot of credit for ensuring that the Fiji A team has developed from a pipedream to a fully fledged rugby league intity. I must also pay tribute to Ken Koroi who along with Phill has done the majority of work here in OZ and has been responsible for getting many of the younger players into the Fiji A fold. Last year the Fiji A side produced a player in WesNaiqama who this year rose to prominence with the Dragons. Hopefully next year will see the rise of other young Fijian talent.
On the domestic front, national coach Shane Morris has added a great deal of ownership amongst the players and officials back in Fiji since his arrival at the beginning of last year. He has made sure that the domestic players are given ever opportunity to play international rugby league and not only just play the game, but getting them to a level which will ensure that they will be competitive. This years State of Origin series between the East and the West was extremely competitive and has the seen the emergence of new fresh players on the domestic scene, some of which will have gained contracts with Aussie based clubs through their performances.
On the junior scene, the FNRL were able to send an U16 national side to Australia this season, where they were joined by 4 Fiji A appointed players. This side performed well in 4 games in QLD and since has seen some of the players in that squad approached by NRL clubs with a veiw of inviting these young players to training camps or even joining the NRL clubs on a more permanent basis.
To top off this year, the Fiji A side will be travelling to Fiji on this coming Tuesday (11 Oct) to play 2 games against 2 selection sides from the domestic comp. The first game will be against a Chairmans Select on Thursday and the 2nd game on the Saturday will be against the Fiji Residents side. Both these games will be viewed by national selectors from which they will announce a national training squad at a FNRL Gala Dinner evening held on Saturday night in Suva. The squad will be chosen to prepare for the 2006 7's series in Australia and also for the Pacific Cup, proposed to be held in March 2006.
As you can see, great strides being taken for rugby league in Fiji and lets hope they continue to develop at this rate and we can see a truly competitive side for the 2008 World Cup from Fiji.
