Touch Football train-on squads announced

Touch Football Papua New Guinea this week announced the train-on squads for the national men’s and women’s teams.

This comes after the successful completion of the 2017 Touch Football National Championships held in Port Moresby this month.

The 80 players (50 men’s and 30 women’s) consists of talent of from Popondetta, Manus, Wewak, Lae, Rabaul, Brisbane, Kimbe, the Highlands region and Port Moresby.

President of TFPNG, Dadi Toka Jr said the selection was not easy for the panel as they had over 600 players participate at the National Championships.

“The selection panel was led by Peter Del Monte, former Australia Touch board member and coach of Qld and NSW touch football teams.

“Del Monte worked closely during the championships with Peter Stoddart, who is a former Australian Open Men’s player winning 2 World Cups. Both selectors have been neutral, transparent carrying a lot of credibility in their player selection.

“Both selectors have also been assisted by the Head Coaches of the National teams, Martin Joffey (Open Men's), Godfrey Luke (Open Women's) and Ari Peter (Open Mix).

“This selection process is the first step in the road to the 2019 World Cup in Malaysia. 80 players stood out during the National Championships 2 weeks ago, unfortunately we need to trim it down to 42 players to cover 14 players in Open Men's, 14 Open Women's and 14 Open Mix before the World Cup,” he said.

TFPNG has scheduled the first camp for the 80 players on September 29, 2017 in Port Moresby.

The 80 players will go through training sessions, workshops and a few trial games to then select only 60 players to continue on the road to the 2019 World Cup.

Toka added there will be another camp for the 60 players in early 2018 for more training sessions and trials to reduce the squad numbers again.

 “Team PNG performed exceptionally well in the 2015 World Cup, with our Open Men’s team winning Bronze.

“So at this stage, we are ranked 3rd in the World behind New Zealand and Australia.

“Those results came from substantial Government funding to assist with their preparations towards the 2015 World Cup and 2015 Pacific Games.

“TFPNG will be starting the campaign towards the 2019 World Cup with no Government Funding or Corporate Sponsors.

“Our goal is obviously to perform exceptionally well again, but we need partners. We need financial partnerships from communities, the corporate sectors and hopefully the Government again, “said Toka.

The train-on squads: 

Author: 
Troy Taule