\n<\/p>\n
Following the Perth Bears, the next franchise to join the National Rugby League competition may just be the PNG Boars. Or will it be the Hunters, the Chiefs or even the Coastal Thunderhawks?<\/p>\n
That will be decided in coming months after the NRL\u2019s Papua New Guinea franchise launched an international call-out for suggestions, giving fans two weeks to come up with an identity for the new entity.<\/p>\n
Prime minister James Marape it was an important step for more than just the club. \u201cThis team must be owned by the people of Papua New Guinea,\u201d he said. \u201cIt must tell our national unification story and resonate with the idea of one people, one nation, one country.\u201d<\/p>\n
At an event at the National Stadium in Port Moresby on Wednesday, Marape was joined by Australian High Commissioner to PNG, Ewen McDonald, and franchise chief executive Andrew Hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe no longer want to be a franchise, we no longer want to be a bid, we actually want to be a club,\u201d Hill said. \u201cBefore we become a club, we need a name.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the website for submissions, Boars, Chiefs and Coastal Thunderhawks are suggested, but within hours social media has been flooded by hundreds more options.<\/p>\n
The PNG Hunters is an early favourite, given a team under that banner has competed in the Queensland Cup competition since 2014. There have also been more novel proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fitting name would be PNG Traders,\u201d one said. \u201cThe name strongly takes us back to the days of our ancestors prior to the arrival of colonisers into PNG.\u201d Another proposed the PNG Flames \u201csince we have many active volcanoes\u201d.<\/p>\n
PNG Butterflies and PNG Bees featured in one pitch, continuing a theme for the natural world that included the Birds of Paradise and the PNG Hornbills, known locally as Kokomos.<\/p>\n
Another fan wanted the Muruks, a variety of cassowary, because it is \u201can iconic and formidable bird\u201d that \u201crepresents power, agility, and a deep connection to the natural environment\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the end of August, five names will be selected by the club\u2019s board to progress to a second phase which will involve a public vote.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Sign up to Australia Sport<\/span><\/p>\n Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cAt this stage though, we need everybody that\u2019s interested to give us a name so we can take forward and turn this franchise into a thriving NRL club,\u201d Hill said, confirming the process was open to anyone around the world as long as they were \u201cconnected to PNG\u201d.<\/p>\n The club\u2019s entry into the NRL was confirmed last year thanks to a $600m pledge from the Australian government to PNG and Pacific rugby league.<\/p>\n Yet the new franchise \u2013 due to enter the NRL in 2028 \u2013 as already faced challenges. Bid chairman and businessman Wapu Sonk stepped down from the board due to allegations of corruption made in July unrelated to the team. He has denied any wrongdoing and said the claims are \u201cbaseless\u201d.<\/p>\n Similar fan-driven naming processes have been undertaken for clubs in recent decades, including for the Tasmania Devils in the AFL, and are designed to connect clubs with potential fans before the players take the field.<\/p>\n Marape said has entered a suggestion, but he told local media would not reveal it. \u201cI don\u2019t want to influence the mindset of the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following the Perth Bears, the next franchise to join the National Rugby League competition may just be the PNG Boars. Or will it be the Hunters, the Chiefs or even the Coastal Thunderhawks? That will be decided in coming months after the NRL\u2019s Papua New Guinea franchise launched an international call-out for suggestions, giving fans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[1646,9163,2716,2883,1991,9164,1030,1989,1905],"class_list":{"0":"post-15622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bees","9":"tag-boars","10":"tag-butterflies","11":"tag-competition","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-nrls","14":"tag-opens","15":"tag-png","16":"tag-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}