'Uniting PNG with Australia forever': Fans to choose team name
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Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has tasked the new board of the nation’s NRL franchise with launching a competition to establish the name for the team.
The Prime Minister joined Australia’s Minister for Pacific Islands Affairs Pat Conroy, ARLC Chair Peter V’landys and NRL CEO Andrew Abdo in Port Moresby on Tuesday to announce the inaugural board of the PNG team.
The seven-person board will be chaired by former Canterbury Bulldogs chair Ray Dib and includes PNG Kumuls legend Marcus Bai, who won premierships with Melbourne Storm and Leeds Rhinos after making the transition from New Britain.
The appointment of the board is a major step towards preparing the team for entry to the NRL premiership in 2028, and will enable the franchise to make decisions now on a CEO, coach and the name of the franchise.
Marape said the team name would be decided by the people of Papua New Guinea, but there were parameters they must follow which reflect the shared history and values of Australia and PNG, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence on September 16.
“I have my own views towards what should be the team name, but … 11 million people must decide on the name of the team,” he said.
“Chairman Ray and the board here, your first job from the two governments is to really launch out the competition for the team name.
"It must be a name that at least 50%, 60% or 70% of the country supports. It must not just be a name, there must be a motif behind the name.
“The strategy is about uniting our people and uniting PNG with Australia forever, and so you must have the name resonate with this reason; something that every child, it doesn't matter where he or she comes from, identifies with going forward and every Australian also has an affinity for this name.”
Marape and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese walked Kakoda Track last year, camping in key locations where Australian soldiers fought in close combat with invading Japanese forces during World War II.
Papua New Guineans played a significant role in helping to repel the advances of the Japanese and Marape said he hoped Australian fans would adopt the PNG franchise as their second NRL team.
Marape said: “For young Papua New Guineans and young Australians, I want to impress on you that when myself and Prime Minister Albanese walked Kokoda Track last year, we spent a night at Isurava and the chief there ... I sat with him and conversed with him in the night, and I said, ‘how come you chose to be on the side of Australians and not the Japanese in 1945’.
“I was educated in the fireplace that night, and in 1945 up to 1975, and even before, we were governed out of Canberra and not Port Moresby. We were one sovereignty and not two sovereignties.
“It was in 1975 that we became a nation, so lest we forget where we came from in our history, because only those who don't forget the history will excel into the future.
“I want children of this country to find a name that resonates with our shared past, our present today and where we are going into the future as two people living side by side in this part of planet Earth, where after so much violence in other parts of the earth, we want to keep our Pacific a safe, clean place for our children to live and co-exist.
“I want to ask the board to launch out the team naming competition and also the team song. A team song must go side by side with it.”
