Member for Moresby South, Justin Tkatchenko has praised the performances of Waidex and Joyce Bay Stingrays in the Pepsi 9s challenge despite their loss in the finals.
Both teams played well into the final play-offs at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium. Tkatchenko said even though the Moresby South teams lost their respective matches, he was impressed with as they come out as runners up.
Waidex lost in the Pepsi Cup finals to TI Vikings 36- 25 while in the bowl Stingrays went down to Kone Tornados 8-4.
It was a close first half with Waidex trailing 18- 19 but let the game slip off in the second half to the opposition scoring 18 points to 7 going down by 11 margin.
The Southside team had talents in former Hela Wigmen’s Junior Hoki and Gulf Isou’s Obert Muri and rest of the unit put to difficult tasks by the experience opposition.
While Vikings were well served by former PNG Hunter Muka Kalu, Tommy Moide, Junior Belo and Makara Hura, experience was the major factor in their impressive win.
Tkatchenko said this will be a return confrontation at Moresby South Stadium during JT Nines on February 2- 13.
He congratulated Waidex for coming out as runners up and praised the players and coaching staff for their efforts. The MP said he as seen an improvement after nine years of the Southside competition.