To ensure the growth of rugby league in Papua New Guinea, the Papua New Guinea National Rugby League Competition or PNGNRLC is introducing a women’s national competition.
The competition will be led by six participating franchises.
Taking a page out of the Women’s National Rugby League Competition in Australia, the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League with funding support from Kumul Mineral Holdings and other stakeholders are ensuring a strong and vibrant women’s competition takes place in Papua New Guinea.
The expansion of the Competition to include the women and juniors is part of the PNGNRLC five-year plan (2023 to 2027).
An ecstatic Chief Executive Officer of the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League, Stanley Hondina after making the announcement said the first premier women’s competition in PNG will be launched soon.
“We will for the first time have a women’s national rugby league competition, we are starting with six teams and the competition will be for seven weeks,” Hondina said.
The competition is slated for kickoff in July this year.
Out of the current 12 franchises in the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup; six franchises have been selected to field teams in the Women’s competition, and these franchises were selected following a Club audit of the 12 franchises in line with the Club Professionalism Pillar of the PNGRFL’s PNGNRLC five-year strategic plan (2023 – 2027).
In supporting the realization of the Women’s Competition the Kumul Mineral Holdings Limited has committed to giving K15 million over five years to the Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League.
The funding package will run from 2024 through to 2028 and part of this funding will go towards boosting the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup and the new Women’s Competition.
KMHL made a cheque presentation of the first K3 million to the CEO and Directors of the PNGRFL in Port Moresby last week Friday; Chairman of KPHL Dr Ila Temu said KPHL was more than happy to make the commitment.
“We are committed to and excited to partner with the PNGRFL for the first time as it continues to build the domestic competition, this provides a great opportunity for our women and girls,” said Dr Ila Temu.
CEO of PNGRFL Stanley Hondina says that the funding was timely and would provide the seed funding for the Women’s Competition to get off the ground.
“We actually set 2025 to start the National women’s Competition but we’ve managed to bring it in a year early due to the great cooperation with the franchises and among other factors this support from KMHL will really assist us,” Hondina added
The PNGNRLC is responsible for the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup, which is the men’s premier rugby league competition in Papua New Guinea.