It’s all a go for the Moni Plus Port Moresby Australian Football League (AFL) 2022 season, starting with the pre- season competition set to take place soon.
According to the Port Moresby AFL Association President Mr. Douglas Lai, the pre-season will commence on the 23rd of April and should run for at least two weeks following the 12 aside format of competition.
“Due to the time frame, we should run with this format of competition so to enable the games to be faster and at the same time have more teams on the field by having one club fielding two separate teams.”
The president said the proper season will kick off with the men’s and women’s divisions, right after the end of the pre-season matches.
He added that the proper season will be played with both the men’s and women’s division competitions running at the same time despite plans earlier this year to hold separate competitions for the two divisions with the women’s competition to go first.
Mr. Lai said with the National Elections coming up in a few months’ time, the Association decided to just go with the normal format as the elections could disrupt the competition and with it delay the planned schedule for this season, leaving them with no time to complete everything before the year ends.
Meanwhile, the president explained that they got the go ahead to run the competition after the new pandemic measures were issued by the office of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response Controller this week, especially with the changes to the social measures.
He further added that they will ensure that all COVID-19 measures will be enforced during the time of the competition.