{"id":339950,"date":"2023-10-20T00:29:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T00:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=339950"},"modified":"2023-10-20T03:01:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T03:01:26","slug":"png-boss-shuts-down-reports-of-successful-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=339950","title":{"rendered":"PNG boss shuts down reports of successful bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffapua New Guinea<\/a> NRL bid boss Andrew Hill has denied the side is set to become the next team granted a licence, despite reports suggesting an announcement is imminent.<\/p>\n

After the Dolphins<\/a>' inaugural season as the 17th NRL<\/a> side, preparations have ramped up for the NRL to become an 18-team competition.<\/p>\n

PNG's inclusion is supported by the Australian government with the consortium for the bid from the government of PNG.<\/p>\n

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On Thursday, it was reported that PNG would enter the competition in 2025, however Hill was quick to quash that claim.<\/p>\n

"I thought I was going to have a fairly quiet day today," he told 4BC's Wide World of Sports Radio<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Nene<\/p>\n

"Look, there's nothing new, but there's no secret that our bid is supported by the Australian government. And of course … our consortium is actually from the government of PNG. So to have two prime ministers and two governments supporting the bid is a pretty unique situation and I think to take that opportunity with two hands to see what we can do for, the people of PNG and the game is an enormous opportunity.<\/p>\n

"But no, I'm not sure why today (Thursday) was the day that everyone decided to talk about the PNG 18th team bid.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Throughout the bidding process, the suggestion some clubs could merge has persisted with the North Sydney Bears<\/a> consistently discussed as an option.<\/p>\n

\"Pacific<\/p>\n

Hill didn't rule out that sort of possibility in the future, admitting he's open to a partnership.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, we are," he said.<\/p>\n

"Our bid's so unique, we're a consortium that has got government support and we're owned by the government of PNG, which is a really unique bid to start with. And we've spoken about a Pacific team, a Pacific relationship, bringing our Pacific Brothers along the journey.<\/p>\n

"I'm not going to go into detail, but don't be surprised how many other bids and other people have made contact with us directly or indirectly. And what that does is it gives us great confidence that there is a real belief that our bid is genuine. And that our bid is being well-regarded and it will be professional. So we, we're keeping an open mind.<\/p>\n

"Things are moving quickly and so we're not gonna cut off any opportunity. We're open, we're engaged, we're listening, but certainly where we are right at the moment solely is we are focusing on PNG, we're focusing on ourselves."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/4bc-wide-world-of-sports\/png-in-prime-position-to-enter-into-nrl-in-2025\/embed<\/a><\/p>\n

Hill also confirmed Cairns is a consideration as a base for the side.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"We've definitely spoken about Cairns to a lot of people. I think it's important to say that, you know, we need an identity and our identity will be very much PNG, so we'll soon be playing our games at Santos Stadium in Port Moresby," he said.<\/p>\n

"But of course, you come back to that earlier question about what our final model might look like and what other opportunities there may be, taking a game to Fiji … Tonga as part of a broader pacific strategy could be there.<\/p>\n

"If we are based in Cairns, obviously Souths have been playing there for 10 years quite successfully so a game or two there, those things are still up for consideration, but definitely playing most of our games in Port Moresby."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffapua New Guinea NRL bid boss Andrew Hill has denied the side is set to become the next team granted a licence, despite reports suggesting […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":338831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339950"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339956,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339950\/revisions\/339956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/338831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}