Pacific Island Double Header - MAY 2015

[hutch]

10 years ago was 2004.

In that year the cook islands won the pacific rim championships with six teams in it.

With teams like Maori, Niue, a Samoan XIII, a local Fijian team of rugby union players and no png.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Nonsense.

They were full teams that included nz and aus based players and domestic players. Ie a nomal, proper pacific cup.

The Fijian side were league players. Why the f**k would they have been union players? The Samoan team was a full side. The Samoan xiii played in the second division. That's right there were two divisions! There were 12 teams all up. And PNG almost never played in pacific cups even when they were a regular occurence so that's no surprise. Next year will ignore cook islands despite them winning in 2004 and making the final in the last pacific cup.

So in a decade we've gone from 12 teams in two divisions in a full tournament to four teams playing two one off games. And back then a lot of the players were born and bred islanders. Next year will be rebadged NRL heritage teams.

 

[Titanic]

I assume you mean that the full PNG team almost never contested the Pacific Cup as they have entered a team of one sort or another in each tournament since its inception. There have been other competitions that claim the name but they were not in fact Pacific Cups.

In fact, they were the creators of the concept in conjunction with the first post-independence South Pacific Games … a joint initiative of the SP Brewery (Bruce Flynn), the PNGRFL (Jim Jacobi) and the then all encompassing NSWRL (Keith Gittoes).

 

[East Coast Tiger]

You can argue the status of various pacific cups if you like but either way PNG have been absent from a number of these tournaments, including 2004, which was almost certainly the biggest pacific tournament ever, despite PNG not being there. It featured the Maori, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, cook islands, american Samoa, niue and new Caledonia. I doubt any other pacific tournament has featured teams from eight different countries.

 

[CQ Italia]

You can argue the status of various pacific cups if you like but either way PNG have been absent from a number of these tournaments, including 2004, which was almost certainly the biggest pacific tournament ever, despite PNG not being there. It featured the Maori, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, cook islands, american Samoa, niue and new Caledonia. I doubt any other pacific tournament has featured teams from eight different countries.

1992 had 10 without PNG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Pacific_Cup_(rugby_league)

1994 had 10 also without PNG (but 2 Fijian sides): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Pacific_Cup

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Also no PNG in several others. Six appearances out of 11 tournaments.

 

[deal.with.it]

And RL was barely played in the islands. Now Fiji has over 50 clubs with hundreds of teams.

 

[Titanic]

Totally agree that they haven't contested all promulgated events, however, Wikipedia does not differentiate between what was an actual Pacific Cup and what wasn't. PNG did not contest either of the events in the early 90's because of a dispute over two points. The first being that they were originally to host the event but that was changed due to NZ's request and secondly they were not offered support funding whereas the other "nations" were. This became the catalyst for one faction of PNG (but not Port Moresby) to support SL. That rift widened by the ARL not making good its commitment to Port Moresby after the SL debacle coupled with PNG's unstable management meant a protracted period of non-involvement by the one country that could truly field a team of local players.

All that aside, it is a wonderful thing to see the other countries, in particular Fiji, embrace the sport. It is equally as pleasing to see that Victoria, NT and WA are no longer included as Pacific nations, although they provided exotic competition at the time from the PNG perspective.

Playing the double header on the Coast is most likely the most cost-effective solution. I have little doubt that the figures quoted previously in this thread to host the tournament in PNG as about $1mil are fairly accurate because accommodation in the hotels that the visiting teams stay at are 5 star prices and airfares getting there from the other island nations are all routed through Oz and so the prices are high. Gate receipt profit from the so-called "huge" crowds are almost non-existant as general admission is low, ticket security poor and costs very high.

 

[The Voice of Reason!]

A few more details here: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=290410

According to Radio New Zealand, a Melanesian and Polynesian Cup double-header between Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga has been pencilled in for the first weekend of May on the Gold Coast, following the Anzac Test, with the winning teams to clash at the end of the year.

"It's great for us because this I think will be funded by the Rugby League International Federation so we don't have to bear any cost in participating," Rev Reuben said.

The Pacific Test series will add to a busy 2015 calendar for the region, with an international nines tournament also taking place during the Pacific Games in July.

Reuben said their aim was to include more local players in the Vodafone Fiji Bati team for the upcoming international matches.

"Our plan is to go for 50-50, 50 per cent of local boys and 50 per cent of NRL players and those playing in other grades abroad," he said.

Reuben also confirmed newly-appointed national coach Shane Morris would join FNRL by mid of next month.

 

[langpark]

I think they're on the right track with this double header thing, but being mid-season, lack of time and funds means it will only ever be a one-off match. So, how do we give it some continuity (to build up prestige over time) and without excluding the Cook Islands? Here's what I would suggest:

2015 (since it's already been decided)
Tonga vs Samoa
PNG vs Fiji
but I would also add: Cook Islands vs USA/Canada/Jamaica (any one that is willing or able to make the trip)

2016: (don't worry too much about who's in 1 and 2 for now, it's just an example, just comment of the format)
Tier 1: Tonga vs Samoa (loser drops to tier 2 in 2017)
Tier 2: PNG vs Samoa (winner is promoted to tier 1, loser plays tier 3 winner to decide who plays in the group the following year)
Tier 3: Cook Islands vs USA (winner plays tier 2 loser for possible promotion, loser plays winner of qualifiers)
Qualifiers: Here you may have the likes of Canada, Jamaica and even the Phillipines wanting to play matches to get into tier 3.

This way, we're not closing the door on any nation, as is being done right now to the Cook Islands.