Dakink
12-10-05, 12:54 PM
Following the good result over the Junior Kangas I can see more players following Bai and co's footsteps. A future competitve nation providing it is helped aklong the right ways and its NRL can avoid the violence of the past.
Spotlight on talent export
"PNG could perhaps do better by supporting or harnessing sports that have a strong popular following and support base"
By KEVIN PAMBA
RUGBY league stands out as the only sport in PNG to have exported more local players to overseas competitions.League?s record is un-matched by any other sport, let alone the other football codes in this country.
The record speaks volumes of the depth of popularity and following of rugby league here. The record begins with the historic signing of Western Highlander, Philip Ralda for a contract in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.
Since Ralda?s historic stint in the UK, many local rugby league stars have followed ? mainly to Australia at various times.
After Ralda, there followed by Dairi Kovae and Arnold Krewanty, but this time to Australia.
They were contracted to the Newcastle Knights in the then New South Wales Rugby League (now National Rugby League) competition of Australia when that club began in 1988.
Kovae also had a stint with the now disbanded North Sydney Bears.
Around the same time as Kovae and Krewanty received Australian contracts, Bal Numapo, arguably the most charismatic and long-serving Kumul captain, had a trial run with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Then in the early 1990s, Daroa Ben-Moide from the Hawks club in Port Moresby, followed them. But Ben-Moide went to Petone in New Zealand where he played for more than one season.
The flood-gates appeared to have opened in the mid-1990s for the export of PNG rugby league talent.
This is the period when the likes of Marcus Bai, Stanley Gene, John Okul and Elias Paiyo struck playing contracts in the UK and Australia, all in the same year.
Bai, Gene and Okul struck deals with English clubs after a Kumul tour.
Paiyo found himself winning a contract Down Under around the time of the Super League and ARL ?war? over the control of the game was intensified.
That saw Paiyo initially lining up with the Super League club Adelaide Rams along with fellow Kumul and then Australian-based, Bruce Mamando.
Paiyo played in Australia for several seasons, although not as colourful a career, as Bai or Gene while Okul fell out along the way.
Other PNG players during the same era got low profile contracts with local leagues in Queensland and New South Wales.
They include players like Mathew Elara, Michael Mondo and Andrew Norman.
Bai is by far the most well-known story, due to his fortunes as a foundation player of new team Melbourne Storms when the club won the premiership in 1998 in the NRL ? compromised competition between Super League and ARL.
Bai joined the Storms from the Gold Coast Chargers in Australia after he moved over following a season with Hull Kingston Rovers in the UK.
Bai is now back in the UK playing out his career with premiership winning team Leeds Rhinos in the English Super League while Gene is still there with Huddersfield Giants in the same competition.
In the latter part of the 1990s, several more players received contracts in Australia. The notable of them was firebrand Kumul forward, Raymond Karl.
Karl struck a one-season deal with the flamboyant Sydney City Roosters for the 1999 season, playing mostly in the Reserve Grade.
His contract was made possible by the input of Kumul captain and Roosters half-back, Adrian Lam and Kumul coach, Bob Bennett.
Karl also had an offer from a French team after the 2001 Test match in PNG between the Kumuls and the French Roosters. But this opportunity fell through.
After a bit of lull, the next biggest overseas signing of a PNG player was that of Makali Aizue in 2003 by Hull Kingston Rovers ? the team that groomed Bai, Gene and Okul.
Aizue said in a recent interview that his contract was made possible by Gene and he owes everything to him. Aizue said Gene is his manager and mentors him in his games over there.
Gene?s promotion of Aizue and Lam?s support of Karl are now on record as being of two PNG professional league players promoting local league talent for overseas exposure. Aizue has returned to England along with Gene.
Bai is also going back to Leeds.
Kumuls forward, Andrew Norman is reportedly the next cab off the rank in overseas contracts.
The Port Moresby-based Norman is reported to have struck a deal with the Brisbane Broncos in Australia.
Kumuls back, Ricky Sibiya was also mentioned in the media of having aroused interest among talent scouts in Australia this season during the one-off Test against the Australian Invitational Kangaroos in Townsville in October.
Another one or two more Kumuls were also spoken to by talent scouts after that game.
On average therefore, there is one PNG rugby league player that receives a contract or is cited by overseas talents scouts each year.
This record of rugby league is un-matched by any sport in PNG. Rugby league has achieved this record amid its well-known difficulties and challenges.
The story would be different without the difficulties and challenges and if the game was run very well.
It would also be a far more different story if there were managers and management agencies available to promote and export local league talent to professional competitions overseas.
The latter is a major feature of sports administration in for instance, Central and Latin America who are heavily into exporting baseball and basketball talent to the United States and soccer talent to Europe.
There is one more hurdle in sports in PNG ? the meager resources and corporate and government support available is thinly spread out among too many sports, all staking a claim at having a nation-wide appeal as a ?national sport?.
The sub-standard ?national? teams in various sports that PNG continues to send overseas and return home as good losers attest to this.
PNG could perhaps do better by supporting and harnessing sports that have a strong popular following and support base, as does happen in Latin America with soccer.
That is where rugby league comes in for PNG.
If this was so, legions of PNG rugby league players would be playing in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and elsewhere and repatriate money back to the country.
Spotlight on talent export
"PNG could perhaps do better by supporting or harnessing sports that have a strong popular following and support base"
By KEVIN PAMBA
RUGBY league stands out as the only sport in PNG to have exported more local players to overseas competitions.League?s record is un-matched by any other sport, let alone the other football codes in this country.
The record speaks volumes of the depth of popularity and following of rugby league here. The record begins with the historic signing of Western Highlander, Philip Ralda for a contract in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.
Since Ralda?s historic stint in the UK, many local rugby league stars have followed ? mainly to Australia at various times.
After Ralda, there followed by Dairi Kovae and Arnold Krewanty, but this time to Australia.
They were contracted to the Newcastle Knights in the then New South Wales Rugby League (now National Rugby League) competition of Australia when that club began in 1988.
Kovae also had a stint with the now disbanded North Sydney Bears.
Around the same time as Kovae and Krewanty received Australian contracts, Bal Numapo, arguably the most charismatic and long-serving Kumul captain, had a trial run with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Then in the early 1990s, Daroa Ben-Moide from the Hawks club in Port Moresby, followed them. But Ben-Moide went to Petone in New Zealand where he played for more than one season.
The flood-gates appeared to have opened in the mid-1990s for the export of PNG rugby league talent.
This is the period when the likes of Marcus Bai, Stanley Gene, John Okul and Elias Paiyo struck playing contracts in the UK and Australia, all in the same year.
Bai, Gene and Okul struck deals with English clubs after a Kumul tour.
Paiyo found himself winning a contract Down Under around the time of the Super League and ARL ?war? over the control of the game was intensified.
That saw Paiyo initially lining up with the Super League club Adelaide Rams along with fellow Kumul and then Australian-based, Bruce Mamando.
Paiyo played in Australia for several seasons, although not as colourful a career, as Bai or Gene while Okul fell out along the way.
Other PNG players during the same era got low profile contracts with local leagues in Queensland and New South Wales.
They include players like Mathew Elara, Michael Mondo and Andrew Norman.
Bai is by far the most well-known story, due to his fortunes as a foundation player of new team Melbourne Storms when the club won the premiership in 1998 in the NRL ? compromised competition between Super League and ARL.
Bai joined the Storms from the Gold Coast Chargers in Australia after he moved over following a season with Hull Kingston Rovers in the UK.
Bai is now back in the UK playing out his career with premiership winning team Leeds Rhinos in the English Super League while Gene is still there with Huddersfield Giants in the same competition.
In the latter part of the 1990s, several more players received contracts in Australia. The notable of them was firebrand Kumul forward, Raymond Karl.
Karl struck a one-season deal with the flamboyant Sydney City Roosters for the 1999 season, playing mostly in the Reserve Grade.
His contract was made possible by the input of Kumul captain and Roosters half-back, Adrian Lam and Kumul coach, Bob Bennett.
Karl also had an offer from a French team after the 2001 Test match in PNG between the Kumuls and the French Roosters. But this opportunity fell through.
After a bit of lull, the next biggest overseas signing of a PNG player was that of Makali Aizue in 2003 by Hull Kingston Rovers ? the team that groomed Bai, Gene and Okul.
Aizue said in a recent interview that his contract was made possible by Gene and he owes everything to him. Aizue said Gene is his manager and mentors him in his games over there.
Gene?s promotion of Aizue and Lam?s support of Karl are now on record as being of two PNG professional league players promoting local league talent for overseas exposure. Aizue has returned to England along with Gene.
Bai is also going back to Leeds.
Kumuls forward, Andrew Norman is reportedly the next cab off the rank in overseas contracts.
The Port Moresby-based Norman is reported to have struck a deal with the Brisbane Broncos in Australia.
Kumuls back, Ricky Sibiya was also mentioned in the media of having aroused interest among talent scouts in Australia this season during the one-off Test against the Australian Invitational Kangaroos in Townsville in October.
Another one or two more Kumuls were also spoken to by talent scouts after that game.
On average therefore, there is one PNG rugby league player that receives a contract or is cited by overseas talents scouts each year.
This record of rugby league is un-matched by any sport in PNG. Rugby league has achieved this record amid its well-known difficulties and challenges.
The story would be different without the difficulties and challenges and if the game was run very well.
It would also be a far more different story if there were managers and management agencies available to promote and export local league talent to professional competitions overseas.
The latter is a major feature of sports administration in for instance, Central and Latin America who are heavily into exporting baseball and basketball talent to the United States and soccer talent to Europe.
There is one more hurdle in sports in PNG ? the meager resources and corporate and government support available is thinly spread out among too many sports, all staking a claim at having a nation-wide appeal as a ?national sport?.
The sub-standard ?national? teams in various sports that PNG continues to send overseas and return home as good losers attest to this.
PNG could perhaps do better by supporting and harnessing sports that have a strong popular following and support base, as does happen in Latin America with soccer.
That is where rugby league comes in for PNG.
If this was so, legions of PNG rugby league players would be playing in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and elsewhere and repatriate money back to the country.