By GABRIEL KATUHO
THE PNG NRL Bid National Championships has kicked off in Goroka and Port Moresby respectively as of yesterday, Monday 7th of April 2025, with some significant footy on display.
The future of Papua New Guinea talents looks bright with the highly anticipated championships aimed at demonstrating the skills learned at the six academies in the country.
The academies; Lae, Goroka and Mt. Hagen, are participating their games at the National Sports Institute (NSI) in Goroka while New Guinea Islands (NGI), National Capital District (NCD) and Central province held theirs at the Santos National Football Stadium (NFS) in Port Moresby.
The PNG NRL Bid National Championships will run throughout the week with the finals expected to take place on Saturday 10th of May.
The match reports from NSI saw Lae year 7/8 defeating Goroka year 7/8 with a 16 to 12 finish at fulltime and a thrilling back-to-back victory after the win over Mt. Hagen defeating them 16 points to 8 in the fulltime.
Meanwhile, at NFS in Port Moresby the year 7/8 boys from Academy’s in Central and NDC ended on an interesting and entertaining draw with 8 points apiece.
Mt. Hagen are now taking Goroka year 7/8 for the final day match of the day at National Sporting Institute in Goroka while NCD to take on NGI and Central awaiting NGI at 3:00 pm to 4:10 ending time.
The last match at the National Sporting Institution saw Goroka under 15s boys’ year 7/8 defeating Mt. Hagen with a 48 to 6 finish at fulltime.
The NCD boys also defeated the NGI with 12 points to nil at the Santos National Football Stadium.
As the last game of the day comes to an end, the Central under 15 boys displayed a spectacular performance defeating NGI under year 7/8 26 points to 10 at Santos National Football Stadium.