Papua New Guinea Rugby League

PNG Rugby League – High Performance

The PNG Rugby Football League (PNGRFL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Papua New Guinea. It is a full member of the International Rugby League and is represented internationally by the PNG Orchids and the PNG Kumuls.

Rugby League is the official national sport of Papua New Guinea, the only country in the world with such status. With huge passion and deep playing resources the PNGRFL ultimately leads the Orchids and the Kumuls test teams. The premier domestic competition is the National Rugby League Competition (NRLC, known as ‘Digicel Cup’) and the PNG Hunters franchise competes under licence in the QRL’s HostPlus Cup competition.

The strategic vision of the PNGRFL for 2030 is to be ranked in the top 5 rugby league nations in the world. To support this vision the PNGRFL has created a high-performance department to deliver on the following priorities:

1. To improve planning, preparation, and support around the PNG Orchids and Kumuls national teams, and their supporting pathways and competitions.
2. To rectify inequality for females in the high-performance rugby league system.
3. Implement capability programs to develop ‘home-grown’ high-performance expertise.
4. To evolve the NRLC (Digicel Cup) clubs as the long-term high-performance drivers of Papua New Guinea’s rugby league ecosystem, for men and women.

After extensive stakeholder consultation with athletes, coaches, support staff, administrators, and board members, and with the support of the Australian Government’s AusSports program and the Queensland Rugby League, the PNGRFL has commenced an ambitious high-performance strategy to significantly change their horizons as PNG’s favourite sport.

To this end they require two leadership roles that will support the GM High Performance in leading strategic change across the PNG Rugby League ecosystem.

• The Manager Competitions & Pathways will streamline and lead high performance pathways and competitions in PNG, from nationally identified talented junior males and females at the 16-18- year-old level with the PNGRFL National Combine, the Digicel Cup competition, domestic ‘Origin’ style events, through to the elite Orchids and Kumuls national test squads.
• The Manager Performance People will lead the capability development strategy across the PNG High Performance system, overseeing the development and delivery of targeted training and education initiatives for coaches, support staff, administrators and the women in rugby league program for PNG national squads, NRLC Clubs and PNGRFL high performance pathway programs.