Phil Gould ... PNG still has a long way to go but signs are encouragingGould encourages more development
AUSTRALIAN rugby league commentator and personality Phil Gould said during a special breakfast hosted by the Papua New Guinea NRL Bid team yesterday in Port Moresby that PNG would be better prepared to enter a team in the NRL in 10 years, The National reports.
The outspoken commentator got straight to the point stating that there will be a lot for the Bid to do and needs its “All Schools Programme” and proper administration up and running as these factors would provide a club with the necessary tools to successfully enter the NRL competition within the next decade.
“Begin now with junior development with its administration and develop it with good programmes and infrastructure that should be sustainable,” Gould said.
“Once the juniors begin from the basics and work their way up, they can achieve anything.”
He said that with sports administration, it would need a lot of unity and cooperation to get things done, starting from the schools as it was the first step.
Gould stressed that proper administration in place was extremely important to seeing through the long-term plans of the sport in PNG.
PNGNRL Bid Team general manager Bev Broughton revealed that the team would begin its junior rugby league programmes with Bid represenatatives set to canvass the entire nation, province by province, to begin in earnest a schools rugby league programme in the following year.
“We are looking to begin the programme at the beginning of next year with the target age groups of 14 and 16 years,” she said.
Gould said: “In Australia now, I would say that 50% of our junior registrations are of Polynesian and indigenous Australians and it would be only natural to tie in other Pacific nations to this bid.”
Gould said the more countries being involved with the NRL would see more opportunities for youngsters and as for PNG it would definitely be an opportunity to use the sport as a developmental tool and something to unite the people.
Gould’s short visit here was a memorable one as he said: “I will go home with things I won’t forget,” after seeing first hand the passion for the game in PNG.
The PNG NRL Bid hopes to have the help of Gould in marketing and promoting the PNG NRL Bid to the rugby league community in Australia.
The Bid’s singsing group was the entertainment for the morning and impressed Gould with its talent.
The PNG NRL Bid conducted a workshop after the meeting yesterday with Gould which involved sponsors, and other associates of the PNG NRL Bid.
Chairman of the PNG NRL Bid team Philemon Embel revealed that plans for a world-class stadium in Port Moresby were already in place and a stadium similar to the Gold Coast Titans homeground Skilled Park Stadium in the Gold Coast would be built early next year.
Given prevailing circumstances, I have similar views along the line of sentiments shared by Phil Gould. We need to approach the development of rugby football on a more sustainable basis and it does make sense to start from the basics like encouraging junior development by involving school aged kids at all levels. Proper sports administration and selection will also play a pivotal role in getting school teams to compete in provincial teams and then finally about three categories (A, B, and C grades) for the national team.
ReplyDeleteIn order to start this process, my advice to the hard working Sports Minister would be to look at local solutions instead of thinking about big plans and ideas that will not work such as sending a team to the NRL early next year. Let's look at simple ideas that can eventually lead to implementing those bigger plans. Firstly, as part of the Government's Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy, the Minister should quickly establish a forum (if not through the normal regional CIMC forums) engage with representatives of local business houses to establish possibilities of long-term sponsorship arrangements (one local company or even individuals sponsoring an individual player for example K15-K20,000/annum instead of sponsoring an entire team which is financially unsustainable for them). Also through similar arrangements, transfer all existing national stadiums to private ownership (on build-operate and transfer arrangements) so that the facilities can be improved and well maintained. Look at consumer sensitive advertisement modes by alcohol and cigarette companies and establish strict guidelines on the use of sponsorship money. Remember, local solutions do work in local contexts.