www.nrl.com/png-score-shock-roun ... fault.aspx A good win away from home. I can't see anyone beating them in PNG, so if they can win away as well, they will give this title a big shake in their first year.

www.nrl.com/png-score-shock-roun ... fault.aspx A good win away from home. I can't see anyone beating them in PNG, so if they can win away as well, they will give this title a big shake in their first year.

looking forward to tracking their progress this year!

There was a bit in a Sydney paper this morning that said Mark Mexico was about to sign with Manly and the PNG coach said he was happy to lose any of his players to another team and he had 15000 young guys ready to step up to fill any vacancies.

Bloody hell 15000 wish we in Britain had 15000

Papua-New Guineas represent the wave of the future.

15,000 kids ready to step up.

I foresee them in the NRL before too long.

Not in the next twenty years, if ever, in the real world.

It is a severely under developed country with a massive crime and corruption problem. I can't see it in the next 20 years.

Your description could also be applied to large areas of Wext Yorkshire, yet we have 4 or 5 top flight professional clubs from that area.

The PNG is in the Queensland Cup for a reason: to prepare for eventual entry into the NRL.

Everyone knows the problems of PNG. This is a period when the rugby league authorities learn how to adapt to the problems. There is a powerful lobby in favour of PNG entry, and it includes the legendary coach Wayne Bennett.

I am sure that a club from Perth and one from Brisbane/South Queensland have more immediate priority for the NRL. However it is not fanciful to expect that PNG, along with Wellington, will be seriously considered after Perth and the second Brisbane club.

I didn't realise things were that bad in GB but then we have a government with no scruples so perhaps it's not a surprise

PNG has a larger population and greater GDP than all the rest of the Melanesian and Polynesian countries combined, and because they are resource rich, they have been growing their GDP by 8% to 10% in recent years.
They have a growing middle class, many of whom are educated at RL schools in Queensland.
Ten years ago they couldn't have afforded to run their own semi pro league or put what is basically a pro side into the Queensland cup, but now they can, and in another 10 years their economy will have doubled again and they will be well able to afford an NRL side.

PNG or Perth?

I can't see a PNG team joining the NRL before I die...

As long as the Hunters serve as a direct route for the players to be scouted by NRL clubs it'll have been a major success.

The NRL has too many options within Aus to worry about expanding to, that's before looking at New Zealand or PNG.

They have a qland cup due to the png govt giving them money they have been given by Australia. If this is an appropriate way to spend aid given the lack of clean water, education and security in the country is highly debatable.

If anyone really thinks a png NRL team can generate $20million a year an NRL team needs to be successful they are kidding themselves. Nice dream but that's all it is. If the game could generate those figures they could have their own fully professional league.

It will be Perth and Brisbane 2 in 2017/18 then it will be another 8-10 years before any further expansion and it is very likely to be a second NZ side and either Adelaide or CQ so that leaves png coming in around 2035!

lets be realistic even to a country as poor as PNG, $20m Aussie dollars is a pretty negligable sum.