By Shane Saroya – EM TV Sports, Port Moresby
The AFL development program ‘NiuKick’ has seen a dramatic increase in the number of kids participating since the roll out of the program to schools throughout the country.
From Port Moresby, the school competition will be taken to Lae, Kavieng and Kimbe before all teams will assemble for selection trials.
The final team will then be trimmed down to make the national team.
Oceania AFL Development Manager, Ben Drew, says the school competition in Port Moresby has been running for over a month and the interest shown by young kids is outstanding.
After the competition, a two-day tournament will be staged to select part of the potential academy squad to travel to Australia next year.
The AFLPNG development team will also travel to other centres of the country to run similar competitions to identify potential young players.
The PNGAFL Development Program has been working very hard to develop their young players up to the senior level, and the success of the senior PNG Mosquitos team is a living testament of that.
AFL development is a pathway for young aspiring players to pursue their career, not only in sport, but to explore other avenues of interest in education and jobs.
