A new pathway to get exposure for young Papua New Guineans that play rugby league is the Junior Kumuls concept, the match between the Junior Kangaroos and the Junior Kumuls is sanctioned by the National Rugby Leagues (NRL) and selection comes under the guidelines of the NRL also.
This was made mention of by CEO of PNGRFL Stanley Hondina during the teams announcement.
Coach of the Junior Kumuls Joe Grima who extensively coached in both England and Australia has complied with set standards from the NRL to pick the best possible junior team to represent Papua New Guinea.
Grima’s last post was as the Elite Pathways Coach and also Assistant Coach at the Parramatta Eels in the NRL.
Grima left his job at Parramatta to take up a job here in PNG with the PNGRFL, his insight into the NRL standards has helped in making sure that PNG has a strong side against the Australians.
“We’ve got three players that we’ve identified from Australia, and they’re linked to Manly, Gold Coast and the other Cowboys. “We’ve also identified players from all four regions of Papua New Guinea. And to top all that off, we’ve identified the best six or seven eligible bass players from the Digicel Exxon Mobil cup.
“And what we want to do is provide a platform for those young men and women. So we have an opportunity for these young men and women to be offered opportunities to get into the Queensland rugby league to get into the New South Wales rugby league, certainly the NRL and certainly Super League and we’ve already had some expression of interest with Australian based clubs already.
“So it’s already starting to manifest. But absolutely, we want to use this opportunity as a platform where we can promote these young men and women into elevated and elite programs in Australia,” Grima said.
The team is made up of Under 20s, from the ages of 20 and below, and Grima says that they have a good mixture of players within the ages of 20 and 17 years of age.
“It’s Junior Kumuls. It’s not a community or junior school boys program. So the age limit is under 20s. So we’ve selected five 20 year olds, and the remainders of the players fluctuate between 17 and 19.
“We’re very, very excited to say that we’ve actually identified three 17 year olds that would have been recognized through a community or school based program and represented their various district and were identified in the national championships here.
“So, out of the 18 players, all players must be no older than 20 years of age, which is consistent to the standards and the regulations set out by the NRL,”Grima said
Grima added that those selected had gone through an extensive vetting process and some players for both the junior Kumuls and the Junior Orchids had to be dropped because of the age restrictions.
“Players need to demonstrate their appropriate age, before they could take part and run onto the field, some evidence would need to be provided.
“And we’re very, very delighted to say that all those men and women have demonstrated and have that documentation before they took to the field.
“Unfortunately, we did identify some players that did not have all the information that was inconsistent to what other information suggested, and unfortunately missed out there.
“No, I think that’s what the chairman and the CEO were suggesting when they said that, you know, we’ve followed the regulations by the NRL and we’re fully compliant in that field so we can take that field and give it the best shot against arguably the world’s best teams,” Grima said