TIGER BLOODS: Success Is Not Winning, It's Doning The Red, Black & Gold (Part 2)

By Sylvester Gawi

Winning a premiership can be the ultimate goal for every rugby league team in Papua New Guinea given the prize money and medals that decorates the hall of fame in our suburbs and towns.

Then there is another goal, a self-motivating aim that every player in every competition strives to achieve week in week out, a position in the ultimate red, black and gold jumper.

In Part #1 I wrote about a semi-professional rugby league team from Morobe, Lae SNAX Tigers who have climbed up the ranks of PNG Rugby League from wooden spoon winners to minor premiership in the first five years of their establishment.

Discipline has been the core of their training, both mentally and physically. Many of them young schoolboys who are juggling schoolwork and rugby with the only discipline being on time management and a clear mindset.

The Lae SNAX Tigers under the guidance of Coach Stanley Tepend and his management team have done a tremendous job to put together young men from all walks of life with an ultimate passion for rugby league. They have in a space of three years produced a good number of players for the SP PNG Hunters playing in the Intrust Super Cup in Queensland, Australia. One of them Justin Olam debuted for PNG on the wing last month and was scouted by Melbourne storms for seasons 2016 and 2017 in the NRL.

Recently the Tigers maintained their lead in the 2016 Digicel cup competition by edging out second placed Rabaul Gurias in Kokopo. Gurias is another successful team in the PNG, being the reigning champions and bulk of their players dominating the Hunters.

The Tigers have fell short in two consecutive years settling for the minor premiership in 2014 and 2015. Their 2016 campaign is going well and they are looking forward in maintaining consistency in the remaining games and hoping for their first grand final appearance.

The success of a player doesn’t depend on the team, individual players determines the team’s success. Getting more players into the Hunters team should be the ultimate goal of every semi-professional team in PNG.

For instance winning a premiership shouldn’t be the primary aim for every team in the Digicel Cup, but rather a pathway to drive excellence.

BEST OF LUCK TIGERS