World Footy News

The new Gold Coast Football Club was the first AFL (or future AFL) club to play Papuan players at the club's highest level, giving Amua Pirika and Stanis Susuve (pictured) a run in 2009. With a huge influx of some of Australia's best young talent it was always going to be difficult for the two to stay on the club's list as it moves into the VFL (2010) and AFL (2011).

As it turns out, Pirika has moved on to play with Mt Gravatt in Queensland's top league, with the possibility of playing some games with the Brisbane Lions, and Susuve will stay with the Coasters to hopefully play some VFL matches. Gold Coast assistant coach Shaun Hart, himself a triple premiership player with the Brisbane Lions, talked to WFN about where the two players stand heading into 2010.

"Stanis is positioned as you described (continuing to trial) and is working hard on getting his fitness up a couple of levels. He has been training very well since returning from the Christmas break time. Unfortunately, Stanis has had a Lateral Menisectomy of his right knee in the last couple of days and will be off the track for four weeks. When he resumes he will have to make every post a winner to ensure he finds his place in the GCFC VFL team".

Reflecting on allowing Pirika to move on, Hart was very frank and made it clear elite fitness was lacking amongst other aspects. "Amua was not considered to be capable of playing league football at this stage. He would have to increase his aerobic capacity significantly and play state league football well for a year or two before he could even consider taking the next step".

It's an honest appraisal that demonstrates the high standards required to reach AFL level, particularly noteworthy considering Pirika's success at the 2008 International Cup. Pleasingly though, both players are being giving more time in the system, so hope remains.