Kumuls coach Mal Meninga joins team

KUMULS coach Mal Meninga joined his team in Kokopo yesterday as preparations moved into full throttle for this Sunday’s game against the Australian Prime Ministers 13. Meninga flew in from Australia transiting through Port Moresby on his way to Kokopo where the team has been in camp for over two weeks now.

The Maroons coach, who takes full charge of the PNG side for the first time since his association with Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League, will be keen to see how the Kumuls fare against an Australian side sprinkled with both experience and emerging stars from NRL clubs.

Meninga’s association with PNGRFL started last year but the former Kangaroo captain played an advisory role to Adrian Lam during the 2013 Prime Ministers 13 challenge and later the World Cup.

Lam was cut from the team with Meninga taking over as head coach with Sunday’s game his first with the Kumuls before they shift camp to Lae for the Test match against Tonga on October 19. Meninga combines forces with SP PNG Hunters coach Michael Marum as his assistant, and whose inside knowledge of the majority of the players in camp – most of them being Hunters, would be a huge plus for these two matches.

The Australian team, captained by Greg Bird, arrives On Friday – flying straight from Cairns to Tokua, to take on PNG in a challenge that moves into its 10th year. The concept started in 2005 with Meninga coaching the Australian Prime Ministers 13 up until 2013 when Laurie Daley took charge of the team, guiding them to a 50-10 win in Kokopo.

Australia has always won the challenge, which has been staged in Port Moresby, Lae and now Kokopo – and which both teams have also used to promote important messages such as the campaign to stamp out violence against women, among others.

Daley is again the head coach in a match that is very important to the Australians as players will be pressing for selection in the Kangaroos side for this year’s Four Nations – which also involves New Zealand, England and Samoa.

PNG Today / Post Coureir