Wayne Carey in PNG 16th April 2010

Wayne Carey will be in Port Moresby for AFLPNG's season launch dinner on the 16th of April.

Dual Premiership Captain at North Melbourne, four time club best and fairest and seven time All Australian, Carey, nicknamed "The King", is generally considered to be one of greatest players to have ever played Australian Football. In 2001 he was named as Centre half forward and captain of North Melbourne's Team of the Century and in 2008 Wayne Carey was named as Australian Football's greatest ever player as part of a list of the top 50 players of all time, published in the book 'The Australian Game of Football', which was released by the AFL to celebrate 150 years of Australian Football. In 2009, The Australian nominated Carey as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win a Brownlow medal.

PNG Boys to boost Coolangatta Blues

THEY play for the Coolangatta Blues but it looks more like the Papua New Guinea Aussie rules national team.
Fresh off a wooden spoon last year, new Blues president Scott Reid, who is also the president of AFL-PNG, has secured the services of 10 players from PNG to boost the club.
John Vogae, Ogla Pena, Freddie Peni, Emmanuel Tupia, Junior John Ikupu, Ferdinand Musi, Ali Pinda, Paul Phillip, Gagu Kaiyage and Junior Henry will all play for the Blues this season.
AFL PNG, which has been funded by the AFL for almost 10 years, have had players in Queensland on scholarship as part of its Coca Cola Talent Program for several years.
Coolangatta is a partner club and more than happy to accommodate the players, who range from the age of 17 to 24, from PNG for 2010.
"They bring a lot of run and fitness and with their attitude they are great to have around because they enjoy their footy," said Reid.
Reid said the boys have already fit right in down at Len Peak Oval.
"One of the things we are a little bit conscious of is we are bringing so many in to Coolangatta and you can sometimes set up a bit of a divide if the PNG boys stick to themselves." he said.
"But Coolangatta has a lot of new players and they are mixing really well with the PNG boys."

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2010 Australian Scholarship holder leave PNG

AFLPNG Coca Cola Talent Path Scholarship Participants left town last Friday 12th of February to take up places in Queensland Australia.

With the Coca Cola Talent Path Program already producing 5 AFLPNG players now listed to AFL Clubs the 12 unattached players sent down on Australian based scholarships will already know that he AFL has already coming knocking on PNG doors.

Ogla Pena (Western Highlands), Freddy Peni (New Ireland), John Vogae (West New Britain), Emmaus Wartovo (East New Britain) and Emmanuel Tupia (West New Britain) will be based out of the Gold Coast. Ferdinand Musi (East Sepik), John Ikupu (Eastern Highlands) will start their campaign from Townsville for the Queensland Country, Greg Aki (Western Highlands) and Larry Nao (Gulf) will base from the Sunshine Coast. Naime Gordon (Central) and Collins Slim (Oro) will be at the Northern Raiders in Brisbane and Amua Pirika (Central) and John James (NCD) will be based out of Brisbane.

The Coca Cola Talent Path has already put through to the AFL, David Meli to the Essendon Bombers, Peter Labi to the Carlton Blues, Donald Barry to the Brisbane Lions, and Stanis Susuve to the new Gold Coast Franchise. And the rumour mill has it that AFLPNG will announce that the Coca Cola Path will now have a staggering 10 participants signed to AFL Clubs by the month end.

The Coca Cola Talent Path is certainly a tried and tested model that has seen real results over the last 8 years from the Talent Camps right through to the Coca Cola Binatangs tours each year. With the AFL Clubs now committing to in country development and talent search PNG is poised no doubt to see more kids joining the ranks in AFL Clubs.