NRL Australia

Shot clocks will be introduced at scrums and dropouts, and teams will now be penalised for setting up a "wall" to prevent charge-downs on field goal attempts - but it is the crackdown on the play the ball that has Bennett most concerned.

Referees have been encouraged to strictly police the play the ball and penalise those who fail to carry out the play the ball process correctly.

Female leading development officer from ENB Grace Michael says it is always a challenge to develop this male dominant sport in the province.

Michael has been developing the sport in schools throughout the province since the program’s inception in 2014 under the League Bilong Laif program run by NRL Australia in PNG.

The program works with schools in the four regions of PNG using rugby league as a tool to support education outcomes.

The 30 minutes session was held at Holiday Inn Hotel as part of the 2016 NRL PNG conference which started on Wednesday and will end on Friday Jan 22, led by Games Development Officer Brian Rowe from NRL Australia.

Rowe is a Level Three high performance coach in the NRL and has coached the Canterbury Bulldogs and Parramatta Eels in their development programs. 

The training session on Wednesday was aimed at building capacity for NRL staff from PNG by enhancing knowledge on latest trends in delivering rugby league community and game development activities.