Untapped talent and 10 million fans: Why Bai says PNG is ready
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Papua New Guinea’s first match in the NRL is tipped to be the most watched game in history and Kumuls great Marcus Bai predicts the atmosphere will be like nothing else in world sport.
PNG will join the NRL in 2028 and Bai said Santos National Stadium in Port Moresby would not be anywhere big enough to accommodate the number of fans wanting to attend in the rugby league mad country.
While the 2028 draw won’t be announced until late 2027, it is expected that PNG would open the season at home and Bai said the whole nation will be watching.
“It will be massive, there’s 10 million people in Papua New Guinea and there will be 10 million people wanting to go to that game,” Bai said.
“Port Moresby will be busier than ever before in the lead up to the game on the day.
“I want to be a part of it and so will everyone in Papua New Guinea. If they can’t go to the game, they will be trying to watch it on TV.”
The annual Prime Minister’s XIII match in October was reportedly watched by a television audience of 1.5 million in Papua New Guinea alone, but many believe the audience could have been even higher.
PNG has waited more than a decade for an NRL side and Bai, who was in the room when the team’s entry was announced last Thursday, revealed how Wayne Bennett had influenced the direction of the bid.
The idea of a PNG NRL team was first announced by the nation’s founding Prime Minister, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, in 2008 but Bennett suggested a PNG side enter the Queensland Cup to prove themselves.
As a result, the PNG Hunters joined the competition in 2014, winning the premiership in 2017 and reaching last season’s preliminary final.
“Wayne Bennett said in 2011 that you need to get into Queensland Cup before you put yourself into the NRL, ‘because it is tougher than what you think’, but it has happened now and I am very excited,” Bai said.
“Ten years ago, I couldn’t have imagined it; not even five years ago. Three years ago, I had a conversation with [PNG Bid Team CEO] Andrew Hill, and I said to him, ‘good luck, to me you are not ready’.
“Looking at our pathways in under 14s and under 15s they weren’t strong, but I think the announcement is going to give a massive boost to our young boys and young girls to get a chance.”
The greatest Rugby League pipeline on earth
Bai was the first Papua New Guinean to play in the elite Australian competition, starting in New Britain and playing for Port Moresby Vipers before joining the Gold Coast Chargers in 1997.
He became a Storm foundation player in 1998 and played 144 matches in six seasons for Melbourne, scoring 70 tries, and won the 1998 Dally M winger of the year award, while helping the club to an historic premiership in 1999.
Few other PNG players have been able to make the transition to the NRL, but with former Eels coaching director Joey Grima in charge of pathways the best juniors are now being identified and put into academies.
The results have been obvious, with the Junior Kumuls drawing 22-22 with the Australian Schoolboys in October after a narrow loss om 2023 and Bai said a PNG NRL team would open the floodgates for local talent.
“It is a big announcement for us as a country and I know a lot of young Papua New Guineans will be looking at jumping on board,” Bai said.
“As I said to the Grand Chief [Somare] in 2008, ‘no one is going to follow the pathway I did. It is too hard’.
“Some years ago, we had the Hunters come into the Queensland Cup and now we have this.
“It is another bridge for our youth in Papua New Guinea and they should be jumping for joy at the chance to go through the pathways and education to be able to represent our country, whether that be through the Hunters or the new NRL team.”
