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Gisborne: Planned outages Tue-WedIs the PNG project too big to fail?
SEN • October 13th, 2025 3:11 pm
SEN's Julian King thinks that people who are doubting the potential success of the PNG NRL side need to keep an open mind before the team makes its arrival.
The team, since its confirmed entry into the NRL in 2024, has been slowly building up towards its admittance into the competition by 2028.
The latest step in that process took place over the weekend, with PNG Prime Minister James Marape announcing that the side will be known as the PNG Chiefs.
While there is plenty of hope that the team will be a unifying source for the country, there are some concerns about how the team will get players, as outlined by Greg Alexander.
However, King believes that this side means too much to the people of PNG for it not to succeed despite the potential issues.
“There are issues, no doubt, most notably having to live in a compound,” King said on SEN 1170’s Mornings.
“But as I said all along, this project is just too big to fail.
“The governments of either country, they won’t allow that to happen.
“We know that this specific sports strategy has been in place since 2019, much of this funding, $60 million over the next 10 years, $600 million in total.
“That will go towards team infrastructure, welfare, and development pathways for male and female players.
“And off the field, the franchise’s greatest cheerleader, the Prime Minister Marape, he sees this endeavour as more than sport.
“He said that the team will be unifying, and he said that when he announced the name of the Chiefs.
“And what it does is provide opportunities for things like youth development, it provides jobs, it provides other human security initiatives.
“And not often spoken about but not insignificant is that it will address PNG’s domestic and family violence problem.
“Marape has actually likened the birth of this team and its impact that of Nelson Mandela’s use of Rugby Union to unite South Africa.
“Every match will be a sellout, and even if you are one of those doubters, surely you are curious to how it is going to look.”
