The Papua New Guinea Hunters (PNG Hunters) are a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

football club based in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. They were formed in December 2013 and currently compete in the

Queensland Rugby League The Queensland Rugby Football League QRL Constitution, 2009: 3 (QRL QRL Constitution, 2009: 2) is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL Commission) and selects the membe ...

, currently called the Hostplus Cup, a second tier of rugby league in Australia. The Hunters are the second Papua New Guinean side to enter the Queensland Cup following the

Port Moresby Vipers The Port Moresby Vipers (formerly the Port Moresby Bulldogs) are a Papua New Guinean rugby league team from Port Moresby. The team currently competes in the Papua New Guinea National Rugby League Competition. History The club competed in the ...

who competed for two seasons in 1996 and 1997. Every Hunters match is shown live on national free-to-air television. The Hunters' home ground is the

National Football Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadi ...

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

and their team colours are red, black and gold. The Hunters won the Intrust Super Cup in Queensland in 2017.

Papua New Guinea NRL Bid 2025

The

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

have pledged their support behind the

PNG Hunters The Papua New Guinea Hunters (PNG Hunters) are a professional rugby league football club based in Papua New Guinea. They were formed in December 2013 and currently compete in the Queensland Rugby League, currently called the Hostplus Cup, a sec ...

entering the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

competition. Papua New Guinea have introduced a National Schools Rugby League Championships which started in 2019 to prepare its junior rugby league talent from the six year olds to the Under 18 divisions for the future. The PNG Government, Australian Government, PNGRFL and QRL signed an agreement which will see the Australian Government assisting to develop the sport in the country. Titled 'Growing and Supporting Rugby League in Papua New Guinea', it is an Australian Government initiative to develop pathways for PNG teams like the Hunters Under 19s and Hunters Women's to play in high-level Australian sporting competitions with a focus on female athlete development, wellbeing and education, and commercial sustainability under the three year program. The PNG Government have officially launched the Papua New Guinea NRL Bid 2025 to participate in the Australian NRL Competition as the 18th team. Andrew Hill , former

Canterbury Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

and RLWC 2017 CEO will lead the PNG 2025 NRL Bid.

Strategic pathways partnership with Dolphins (NRL)

The PNG Hunters have announced a strategic partnership with

Dolphins (NRL) The Dolphins are a professional rugby league football team based in the Redcliffe Peninsula area of the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, that competes in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL). Launched as a bid for inclusion into the NRL b ...

that will see four Hunters players joining the Redcliffe

side during NRL pre-season in November,2022 of which two PNG players will be staying on for the full 2023 season and will play for the SP Hunters on the weekend when they are not in the Dolphins line up.

Stadiums

Kalabond Oval

The

Kalabond Oval Kalabond Oval is a sporting oval in Kokopo, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. It is home to rugby league team Agmark Gurias and has a capacity of just over 5,000 spectators. The stadium sits on the foot of an active volcano, Tavurvur. ...

which is in the town of

Kokopo Kokopo is the capital of East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea. It is administered under Kokopo-Vunamami Urban LLG. The capital was moved from Rabaul in 1994 when the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan erupted. As a result, the population of ...

and has a capacity of 7,000 was the Hunters first home ground. The first ever home match in the

Intrust Super Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by four ...

was against the defending champions

Mackay Cutters The Mackay Cutters are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Mackay, Queensland, Mackay, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Queensland Cup i ...

on 8 March 2014 which the Hunters won 24-16. The ground was used for the club's first 2 seasons.

National Football Stadium

The

is in the capital city

and after undergoing a major refurbishment it was announced in February 2016 that the Hunters would move to the ground for the 2016 season, after they'd played one match there during the 2015 season against

Souths Logan Magpies The Souths Logan Magpies, more commonly referred to by their former names Southern Suburbs Magpies, or South Brisbane Magpies, or often simply referred to as Souths, are a rugby league football club based in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Au ...

on 13 June 2015 winning 34-12.

2023 squad

Notable players

Justin Olam Justin Olam (born 23 December 1993) is a Papua New Guinean professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL), and Papua New Guinea at international level. He is a NRL premiership-wi ...

Edwin Ipape Edwin Ipape (born 1999) is a Papua New Guinean professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Leigh Leopards in the Betfred Super League and Papua New Guinea at international level. Career Ipape made his international debut for P ...

References

External links

* * {{NRL expansion clubs Rugby clubs established in 2013 2013 establishments in Papua New Guinea 2021 establishments in Australia Expansion of the National Rugby League Papua New Guinean rugby league teams Diaspora sports clubs in Australia Proposed sports teams Proposals in Australia