Rabaul Page Park Cowboys took out the revamped Kokopo City Rugby League Agmark 9s Cup yesterday after defeating an equally strong Foreign Brothers of Kokopo 8-6 at the Kalabond field, Kokopo.
Both teams went through the quarter and semifinals playoff before the big grand final showdown and played in front of a good size crowd.
Kokopo City Rugby League Agmark 9s tournament is used as a launch pad to get the domestic East New Britain rugby league back up and running after being domain for two years due to covid-19.
Under the presidency of Nicole Kamara and her new executive Kokopo City League initiated the 9s tournament to lure the interest back and get the clubs organized for the 2023 season proper which will follow shortly.
Grand finalists, Page Park Cowboys and Foreign Brothers were the two benchmark teams throughout the three weeks 9s tourney and that was evident in yesterday’s close score line 8-6 Cowboys favor.
Kokopo City League Vice President and 9’s Match Coordinator Markus Kaugla the successful conclusion of the tournament marks the resurrection of the once famous Agmark 9s off season competition which was the brainchild of former Guria mentor and now ENB Governor Michael Marum back in the day.
Kaugla said from the numbers seen this year, the interest and spirit of the game in coming back and look forward to make it bigger and better next year.
Agmark 9s Cup Winners, Page Park Cowboys picked up K3,000 cash prize while Runners up Foreign Brothers got K2,000
In the Women’s grand final Kokopo Sisters beat KBC Knights 16-4 and collected K1,500. Runners up Knights got K1,000.
For the individual awards:
- GF Man of the match (men) Ronald Bibiken (Cowboys)(women)Marie Tu’u (Knights)
- Top Try Scorer- (Men)Kevin Aigilo-Brothers (Women) Nancy Malamut- KBC Knights
- Top Goal Kicker (Men) Elipas Pidik-Cowboys (Women) Cynthia Peter-Sisters.
Meanwhile, the Kokopo City league competition will break for Easter before the season proper resumes next week starting with a Coaching and Refereeing Refresher course for the following clubs-Spartans, Brothers, Panthers, Storm, Muruks, Lions, Royals, KBC and Ulapia.