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PNG junior star performs well then injured in U16s

  • Monday, August 07 2006 @ 10:11 am ACST
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Oceania

For those wondering about how Papua New Guinea's bright young star, Stanis Susuve, went for the Queensland under 16s in the Australian national titles recently, read on.

The PNG junior won his spot in Queensland's Young Scorpions after top performances for the Country Kookaburras team in Queensland's state under 16s tournament. In Queensland's first match of the nationals, held in Queensland, Susuve booted two of his teams 8 goals in their competitive loss to the Northern Territory. Unfortunately he was injured and we understand he missed the remaining two matches. Queensland won their other Division Two games, beating Tasmania by 12 points and delivering a thumping 73 point win over NSW/ACT, yet again emphasising that the sport is struggling there. The Northern Territory won the division without a loss. In Division One Victoria Metro was undefeated, with South Australia winning two from three, Western Australia one from three and Vic Country winless.

AFL PNG's Scott Reid told worldfootynews.com that Stanis Susuve has been carrying an ankle injury that restricted him, but they are very pleased with his progress. "Stanis' progress has been fantastic and 2 goals in the game against the Section winners NT was pretty good". However Reid did point out that the level of tactics and coaching was at a new level which Susuve would need time to adjust to - another example of the importance of getting talented youngsters into the system early. "The learning curve from Binatangs to Kookaburras and now Scorpions has been pretty steep". Both AFL PNG and AFLQ are hopeful that he will progress all the way through the system. Scott Reid again: "We see this as a 3 year project so that he might perform to his full potential at Under 18 level. He will stay down to play with Kedron through till the Finals now and we will closely watch his progress there. We hope he will get through this stage of his development with his focus firmly on playing State footy again in 2 years at Under 18 level. We would expect him to be in Australia again next year on Scholarship in some form".

All in all the PNG program maintains its position as the best junior development pathway to the AFL. The hope remains that a Papuan who started his footy in PNG will be drafted into the AFL in the next 3 or 4 years.