By Michael Chammas and Andrew Webster
The NRL will move ahead with plans to launch a team in Papua New Guinea after a significant meeting with the Australian government on Friday night.
The NRL met Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane to present the list of financial and logistical demands it needs to make a team in PNG a reality.
After the meeting, Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys said the NRL and government were “aligned” in their positions.
The NRL will crunch the numbers over the next fortnight and make a submission to the ARLC, potentially as early as later this month.
“We’re more aligned today,” V’landys said. “We’ll take that back to the commission, and the commission will review all that information.
“Then there will be a recommendation from the subcommittee of Misha Zelinsky [executive general manager corporate affairs], Kate Jones [commissioner], Peter Beattie [commissioner], Andrew Abdo [NRL chief executive] and myself.
ARLC chairman Peter V’landys.Credit: Getty
“That’ll go back to the commission. If the commission agrees, we’ll go to the clubs. We’ll go to the members to show them what our plan is to see if they are in agreeance. There’s no decision going to be made for a few months yet because we want to make sure there’s sufficient time for consultation and feedback from the clubs.
“You have to give them the opportunity to comment and provide analysis. But I’m very confident that what the clubs will see, they’ll be happy with. The numbers are now aligned. We’re happy with the numbers. We had to work out where it was going to be spent.”
V’landys wouldn’t speculate on the time frame for the team to be introduced, nor did he guarantee the Papua New Guinea team would be the next to join the competition as the 18th team.
“I can’t say that,” he said. “I don’t know. That analysis is going to occur in the next few weeks. There are various options.”
The NRL intends to announce a masterplan for a 20-team competition. Potential bids for teams include Perth, Christchurch, PNG and another club in south-east Queensland.
“We’re looking at a long-term strategy,” V’landys said.
“If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it as a masterplan and present the masterplan to our members. This isn’t an idea that’s come from me. It’s come from one of the great visionaries in Nick Politis [Roosters chairman].
“He came to the annual general meeting and said we’re all kidding ourselves if we don’t go to 20 teams. We followed that up and he’s 100 per cent right, from the business case we’re doing that.”
There has been plenty of speculation about where a potential PNG team would be based. One suggestion was to base the team in northern Queensland, flying in and out of Port Moresby for matches.
The NRL has scrapped that option and will instead focus on basing a team in a gated community in Port Moresby, with players offered tax incentives to convince them to play there, given PNG’s health and safety risks.
“For the programs to work, it has to be based in Papua New Guinea,” V’landys said.
“One of the big things for us is the tax concessions. You want to get people to go over to Papua New Guinea, who have the necessary skills to be able to deliver what we want to deliver.
“We need the best people over there, so in order to do that you have to have an incentive. You have to have tax incentives.”
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