PNG AIMING TO BE NEXT NRL FRANCHISE

PNG have kickstarted their bid to become the NRL’S next franchise after receiving backing from the PNG government.

PNG wrote to NRL executives on Wednesday afternoon declaring their wish to become the game’s 18th team.

Their government has made the bid a matter of “national importance”, with a host of big businesses in the country also throwing their support behind PNG.

PNG rugby league chairman Sandis Tsaka said “it’s been a work in progress”.

“We have worked secretly behind the scenes for the last two years to put all this together,” Tsaka said.

“We’re very excited the government has come on board to support the bid. Now we can have confidence with the government behind us to work towards delivering our

NRL bid hopefully to be the 18th team. There is a lot of work still to do. It gives us the impetus to get to work.”

The Dolphins will be the NRL’S newest team next year.

PNG will now fine tune their bid. It is unlikely the team would be fully based in PNG – instead they could play a handful of games there and split the rest as part of a joint bid with an Australian or New Zealand team or be part of a Pacific entity.