Show time for Legends

By KEVIN TEME

PORT Moresby residents will have the opportunity to see the former National Rugby League stars in action for during the Ela Motors Legend’s of League match today, The National reports.

Rugby league legends from Australia and Papua New Guinea will lock horns at the loyd Robson Oval in Port Moresby today. It is an ideal opportunity for city residents to see the former rugby league greats from the two countries rubbing shoulders with each other. Among the legends will be former Manly Segulls five-eighth Cliff Lyons, a name popular in PNG, who played for the Kangaroos when they toured Goroka, Lae and Port Moresby in 1991.-Nationalpic by EKAR KEAPU

Most will want to see how great players like former Manly five-eighth Cliff Lyons can recapture some of that brilliant instinctive play against his peers on Lloyd Robson Oval.
It will be a historic moment when PNG hosts for the first time an NRL legends match that was the idea of the PNG NRL Bid and aimed at promoting rugby league to the masses and showing the NRL that PNG is capable of hosting big matches.
Lyons is one player whose name and playing style would have won many fans from the late 1980s to the 1990s.
The spritely 50-year-old is a familiar face to local fans having represented Australian in 1991 during a tour of the country with games played in Goroka, Lae and Port Moresby.
“I am happy to be back here and it’s a great opportunity for PNG and it’s good for the future of the game,” Lyons said.
The former New South Wales player (1987-1991) cannot wait to run out today and is looking forward to a good show with the other stars he had played along side and against.
“It’s good to catch up with my old mates and before I came I had sore leg after a game of touch footy but I am okay now and I’m looking forward to the game,” he said.
“It should be an entertaining show, not so much of a brutal showdown like what you see on TV but it will surely make your weekend an enjoyable one.”
With 34 legends assembled in Port Moresby,  the weekend’s action is expected to draw fans, particularly, those of the older generation who will remember the exploits of several of the former NRL stars such as Lyons, St George Illawara flyer Nathan Blacklock, Melbourne Storms lock Scott Hill and utility Matt Geyer, Newcastle Knights fullback Robbie O’Davis, Brisbane Broncos Julian O’Neill and Cronulla Sharks trio David Peachey, Les Davidson and Martin Lang. 
The match will follow a State of Origin theme which will see the Bisley New South Wales Blues take on the SP Queensland Maroons.