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 11 ...

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, 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 in

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 ...

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 t ...

have pledged their support behind the PNG Hunters 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 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) that will see four Hunters players joining the Redcliffe Dolphins (NRL) 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 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 was against the defending champions Mackay Cutters 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 National Football Stadium 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 * Edwin Ipape

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