Hunters coach Paul Aiton is aiming to get more talents ready to give the national team coach Jason Demetriou a good head ache when selecting players for 2026 world cup.
The selection for the recently concluded Pacific Championship stopped at the Hunters and is more likely to happen for the up coming 2026 Rugby League World Cup in which PNG will co-host.
Therefore, Aiton is not taking it lightly but to give the players under his coaching a shot against other PNG internationals to pull up the red, black and gold Kumuls jersey.
“I want JD to be stuck on positions. I can’t wait for JD to have those headaches,” Aiton said.
“My role is definitely pathway. I’m fully committed for this. The best way for me to help the boys is to get the team (Hunters) play well first. If we play well as a team, that gives us more chance to get more boys into the world cup team and that will make the national coach’s job a little bit harder.”
Hunters is currently about five weeks into its preseason training before a final squad is announced for the Hostplus season 2026. However, Aiton believes that a lot of the younger players in the preseason camp will be able to make the Kumuls if they get everything right.
“I really think with the squad we got, we are going to be able to give that to JD,” Aiton said.
“We brought a lot (of players) in just to make sure that we have enough numbers. At one stage we went close to 50. Quite a lot of players are young.”
PNG Kumuls will take on Lebanon on October 17, 2026 and Samoa on October 23, 2026 in Port Moresby’s National Football Stadium and England in Win Stadium on October 30, 2026 for their pool matchers.
