Former PNG Hunters star No. 9, Wartovo Puara Jnr had his first crack at coaching when he took charge of the Hunters Team White against old teammate Enock Maki's coached side Team Black in the inter-trial match.
Puara Jnr’s team had the last laugh at the Santos National Football Stadium on Saturday, with Team White prevailing 22-10 at full-time.
The much anticipated Hunters inter trial was a culmination of two grueling months of pre-season training which started back in Nov-Dec 2023.
Saturday saw the Hunters' main group split into two teams -Team White and Team Black providing Hunters head coach Paul Aiton an opportunity to step back and critically oversee proceedings and make his final assessment on how the teams would executive their game plan - the structure, combination. process, execution and communication on the field.
With former Hunters greats and assistant coaches Puara Jnr and Maki taking the front seat, the match was played in a regular 40 minutes each way. As anticipated there was no love lost between the two teams who were out to impress and fight for spots in the final 30-man squad. The intriguing encounter was intense and physical at times which saw several players leaving the field early with concussion issues.
Puara said in his first gig as a coach it was tough watching from the bench who would love to be out there directing traffic but was happy to see and identify what needs to be done before their first inter-state trial match with Ipswich Jets on Saturday 10th February in Brisbane.
Puara admitted there are still a lot of fundamentals of the game that they need to get right but is confident will get there.
Meanwhile, PNG Hunters CEO Scott Barker said while it’s still early days to announce this stage, the final 30-man squad is almost locked in for the 2024 QRL season.
The list will not be released until the team's official season launch a week before the season opener in the second week of March 2024.