The Minister for Sports and DHERST, Don Polye expressed disappointment over PNG Rugby League’s failure to comply with PNG Olympic Committee (PNGOC) Justification Committee’s requirements.
This followed PNGOC Justification Committee’s recent announcement to exclude Rugby 9s from the 2023 Pacific Games for Team PNG due to its failure to fulfill requirements set by the Justification Committee.
After various consultations following the matter, the Minster for Sports in a conference yesterday in Port Moresby revealed that the requirements that PNG Rugby Football League had not complied to set by the PNGOC Justification Committee for all sporting codes to the Pacific Games include;
- Submission of a signed selection policy
- Submission of its final squad for Justification Committee endorsement
- And no participation in the two-day mandatory screening and fitness tests
It is understood that the only way sports get their teams to be part of Team PNG is through the Justification Committee (JC) process to ensure transparent selections meeting Team PNG Game’s Performance standard and JC deadlines. This enables PNGOC meeting the Games Organizing Committee (GOC) deadlines as per the Pacific Games Charter to meet deadlines for accreditation and entries.
“Therefore I am disappointed with PNG Rugby Football League for failing to comply with very simple but important processes of the PNGOC Justification Committee,” he stressed.
He advised the League to improve from this experience.
“Their failure to meet the deadline is also of great concern to me considering we are preparing to enter a team in the Australian NRL Competition shortly,” he added.
He said this also applied to any other sporting codes that would be considered for international events.
“I am observing similar behavior in other sports and I cannot condone such slackness, substandard work practices, ill-discipline and lack of focus being compliant,” he emphasized.
