Ep. 139 - PNG Chiefs, Women’s Rugby League & The Future of Sport in PNG with Clare

We've got a lot to discuss today and we've got a few different topics.

But to kick it off, the talking point, well, this talking point has been all over my social media in the last few weeks.

It's the P&G Chiefs.

and their continuous signings, which is getting lots of headlines everywhere.

Every time I open Instagram, I feel like it's another video of someone, some podcaster talking about the Chiefs.

But I think this question I'll pose to you guys is Where are we heading? There's so much excitement around the Chiefs already, but what do you think they've achieved before even playing an NRL game? And if we fast forward from now, say 10 years, what would you have hoped the Chiefs and PNG Rugby looks like?

That's a heavy question.

I think out of all this the Chiefs are a catalyst to change and I know you guys have had a previous chat about that before but it's not just on the back of the Chiefs to change PNG and the movement that we're trying to have here but they will be a massive part of it and they're already influencing change now and from my perspective and from the lens that I see it even the change for women in society and the females playing, getting employment opportunities and professional development as well.

It's an equal playing field.

And they're not just bringing all the resources to POM, it's going everywhere.

All the different provinces and all the opportunities they're opening up and they're empowering other people to create those opportunities too and nurturing the next leaders.

So they're just gonna have a massive boom.

like in the tourism industry, in the sporting industry that hasn't even boomed yet.

So many opportunities to go and they're going to influence everyone else to pick up their game.

So that's going to be like on PNG government and all the supporting dignitaries and leaders around.

They need to unite and get things done.

So I think you guys spoke about getting roads and infrastructure sorted.

We definitely need a boost in all of our hospitals and skilled workers.

I believe there's like a...

I think Queensland TAFE signed something up there in PNG, so they'll be doing vet courses and things too to upskill our youth.

But you can see that there's like a bottleneck with all these young people coming through uni and then there's no jobs right now.

So what are they doing now to prepare us for the future and all these things happening? So...

We've got all the tools to make things happen.

We just have to get everything into place.

But it's really exciting to see how it's already changed like in 12 months.