coach Michael Marum

The Hunters suffered just their second defeat of the season last weekend away to the Burleigh Bears to slip to third in the overall standings.

Michael Marum said the team just didn't turn up and have worked hard on addressing their errors at training.

He's asking for one more big performance at home against the second-placed Dolphins before the team gets a week off.

PNG Hunters mentor Michael Marum was appointed interim Kumuls coach in February and a strong performance next month should confirm his position through to next year's World Cup.

PNGRFL Chief Executive Officer, Bob Cutmore, expects the team to have a strong local flavour, supplemented by a few players in the NRL and feeder competitions.

"We've actually named a squad of 30 players but we haven't finalised it yet...but Michael will sit down with the national selectors and try to sort that out in the next week."

Marum said after the game that Blackhawks are a quality side and it was a narrow win.

The coach admitted that they did too many errors in the second half but they were lucky to win the game by one point.

“We just have to go back to the recorded videos and see where we went wrong and we can polish up in those areas.

“We’ve won five out of six games but we still got a lot of work to do,” Marum said.

The coach added that with former Hunter Willie Minoga on the Blackhawks side, their focus was on everyone out there and not just on Minoga.

Marum expressed disappointment and said simple errors like ball handling and missed passes caused Hunters the game.

He said the team must work on these errors and improve before the start of the 2016 Intrust Cup season next month.

Marum said despite the loss, it was a good experience for the young players to taste international level of play.

Panthers coach Steve Georgallis was pleased with the overall performance for both teams as it was a good quality match and a great game for PNG and rugby league in the country.

Eliab will leave for England after he signed a one-year contract with the second tier London Broncos for the 2016 season.

The co-captains will have several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of regular players.

Their additional roles include being second to the coach and an on field leader who has the ability to inspire the players and sometimes address umpires and the media.

Coach Michael Marum will be appointing the co-captains and is yet to confirm how many he will be appointing.

“We got off to a slow start but the boys just stayed focused on the game plan and stuck together in the last 40 minutes to win," said Marum.

He said there was still a lot of work to do before the finals with plenty of negatives and positives taken from this afternoon’s game.

“Our completion rates were not that good which we will work on.

“But our forwards like Willie Minoga led the way and everyone else just followed through. The backline too did their jobs and so overall a good team effort," said Marum.