The PNG National Rugby League Competition has continued to embrace and recognize the need for improving the standard of refereeing of the game in domestic competition.
Concerns have also been raised on the standard and behavior or game techniques being used by players the national rugby league competition which the Match Review Committee has been tasked to work on this year.
While the standard of the game continues to grow, a capacity building becomes crucial to upskill and educate referees on the new rules and game software or technologies.
PNGNRL Competition Officer Saku Ank is in charge of the Match Review Committee. He gave a brief overview on the roles and responsibilities of the committee, saying over the past two season there’s been a marked improvement on number of incidences on the field of play and players suspensions.
He said, “Every year we face new challenges and match review and game management especially at the Digicel Cup level are some of those issues the Committee has to deal with.”
Ank made mention of the bunker and other technologies that have to be incorporated to make the system more user friendly and efficient but it’s a work in progress.
“Last year because of the disruption by COVID-19 we had a shorter season of only 14 weeks and did not present any real issues.”
He said with the new season starting in two weeks’ time, team coaches, players and team officials must make it their business to review or update themselves with the new competition rules and improve on their game technics to avoid dangerous plays and unnecessary stoppages to the flow of the game.