The PNG Chiefs – a country’s shot at the big time

The woman who is heading Papua New Guinea’s new NRL franchise says the club is a long-term prospect that can lift a nation.

The PNG Chiefs will enter Australia’s NRL – the world’s premier rugby league competition – in 2028, with the help of a AU$600 million investment by the Australian government over ten years.

RNZ Pacific had a chat to PNG Chiefs CEO Lorna McPherson about what is in store for the fledgling franchise, which has generated great interest in a rugby league-loving country.

PNG had lobbied for a long time to get a team into the NRL, at least since around 2008 when Sir Michael Somare was the prime minister.

To finally get there is hugely exciting, according to McPherson, who has extensive experience in PNG rugby league and sponsorship, including with the Hunters, the PNG side which entered the Queensland Cup competition several years back, a kind of stepping stone for the country on its NRL journey.

McPherson said that because rugby league was like a religion in PNG, the advent of the Chiefs was much bigger than just the sport.

“What we’re trying to do with the Chiefs is really to try and bring that professionalism at a very high standard, that PNG can also operate at that standard across the board too.

“It kind of creates the pathways for the players, it creates pathways for the coaches, for administrators, referees etc., right throughout the whole game.

“And I think that for me having rugby league as a vehicle to drive change as well is a really important thing as we go forward, too.”

Prime Minister James Marape has repeatedly described the Chiefs as a development that can be transformational for the country, and McPherson agreed that communities across PNG could benefit from the franchise as an institution that creates “trust and connection” and drives change.

“One of the things we want to launch is a Chiefs Foundation, which we are working on as well, where we would focus particularly on health and education, and really the pathways for young people as well, which we feel is really important as we go along.

“You create opportunities for the kids. You make sure that what as part of your pathway programme, that the kids are going to school. So, everybody cannot play league with us through our pathways programmes unless they go to school, as an example.

“So, all of a sudden, you start to achieve something much more bigger than just a game of footy.”

McPherson said that the Chiefs also had the potential to help general governance of sport in PNG across other codes.

“League is just one code of sport. And so if we get it right, that can replicate right to other codes as well and and how we actually do things as well, and you get that governance, and then good governance can then replicate right throughout Papua New Guinea.”

Governance of several sporting codes in PNG have had a chequered history, with weak financial controls and factional disputes not uncommon.

McPherson admitted that there have been “hiccups” along the way, but said there were clear guidelines on governance for rugby league in PNG.

“We are audited, everything’s done properly, and and I am really comfortable with the way that it is run, and the code’s run right across the whole of the country.

“So the NRL team coming in, it is just the icing on the cake for us because we have got the rest of it right.”

The Chiefs have recruited several high profile rugby league players for their inaugural season already, including Jerome Luai who has also been earmarked as a potential tourism ambassador for PNG.

While PNG players do not yet feature in the ranks, McPherson assured RNZ Pacific they would be a central part of the mix.

“We hae got seven players now. We have recruited what has been available in the pool that you have available to be able to talk to,” she said, adding that under NRL rules players are not always available for negotiation until contract windows emerge.

“We cannot talk to many people until November 1, including some young, talented Papua New Guineans, as an example as well. So November 1 is kind of D-Day for us, and we have got a lot of focus on that timeline to be able to start to do the recruitment of other players.

“People say to me like, ‘Oh, you don’t have any forwards’. Well, there is none available to talk to until November 1, so your hands are tied.

“Papua New Guinean players are important to us. We are the PNG Chiefs. But we are also looking at the Pacific overall, so our strategy is to take on Pacific players and make sure that the whole of the Pacific Islands is is covered.”

McPherson makes no apologies about the tax incentives being used to lure players to the Chiefs.

“At the end of the day, the tax was given at the time to encourage people to move to Papua New Guinea, because everybody has to up and go to a different country. It was an incentive to encourage players to come across.

“But we have got the same salary cap as everybody, and we are not allowed to underpay somebody.

“I am not ashamed of the fact that we have got tax-free. You know, that was there as an incentive, and I think it was a good incentive for us and for the players as well because they do have to to come to a different country.”

There are some grumbles in the Australian public about the sheer amount of tax payer money being thrown at the PNG Chiefs which, along with the tax incentives, may look like an uneven playing field.

“I do not see it being an unfair playing field in any way, shape, or form,” McPherson said.

“They have to give up so much to be able to come over to Papua New Guinea that other players do not have to do.

“It is a big change. You are moving your children’s schools, you are changing it to a different country, etc. So it is completely different than any other environment. So do I think it is unfair? No, I don’t.”

Canberra is sinking a lot of money into the PNG Chiefs, as the coin finally dropped that sport diplomacy is an area where it can gain an edge on China in terms of influence in the region, which is clearly its goal.

McPherson would not be drawn on geopolitical ramifications of the Chiefs, but preferred to focus on the altruistic aims in Australia’s PNG Chiefs investment.

“It is about Australia helping Papua New Guinea build a really strong institution. We know that it is something that we can build and and something that will deliver real change across the country.

“It will unite a country and it will drive change within the the likes of the school systems.”

But is the PNG Chiefs a viable long-term prospect that will last beyond this initial splash of investment from Australia?

“Look, there are so many people that have said to us that this could never be done, right? Like it or not, they said to us that the players would not come. They said that the coaches would not come. There would be no commercial viability of the club.

“But believe me, we are seeing the complete opposite. We will in the next few weeks launch our partnerships with our sponsors. That is exciting. We have done really well there.

“The team has worked amazingly, my commercial team and the guys pulling all of that together.

“We have got exciting times with our player recruitment, our coaches. We are in a really good place. And so, my role as the CEO is to make sure that the the business becomes sustainable, and it becomes commercially viable.

“I have gotten the most amazing team that work for me, and we are really set up now to drive that forward. So, do I think it’s sustainable? Yes, I do. Do I think it will bring change? Yes, I do as well.”