The Australian Football League (AFL) International Cup (IC) is marked for 2024 and AFL Papua New Guinea (PNG) is not wasting any time to make preparation for the selection of the national teams to participate in the challenge.
Following the success of the 2022 season for most of the centers where ALF was played in, the country’s main AFL body is now looking forward to hosting the national championships once again after the COVID pandemic disrupted things from 2020 to 2021.
AFL PNG Senior Football Operations Manager Mr. Rex Leka said the national championships is one avenue from which the selections for the national teams for both males and females are done through; therefore, the national championships is on the cards for this year.
He further explained that the national championship will enable the selectors to select potential players to form the train on squad for both the PNG Mosquitoes and PNG Flames national teams.
The last International Cup was played back in 2017 (IC17) in Australia where the PNG Mosquitoes men’s team took home the title for the second time and are currently still holding on to it. However, 2017 was long ago and it is now time for some new young bloods to represent the country in the national teams for the upcoming IC24.
“Most of the players in the team then played in 2017 and many of them have moved on. Now it’s time to find new ones,” said Mr. Leka.
Mr. Leka said that the championships and the selection for the national teams will be among the main agendas to be discussed during the upcoming AFL PNG start of the year meeting with the executives and management.
Meanwhile, the PNG Mosquitoes will be defending the IC title for the third time next year in IC24. The Mosquitoes initially snatched the title in 2014 and successfully defended it in 2017.
The International Cup, which started in 2002, is staged every two years. Since 2002, it has been held in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014 and the last one was in 2017 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, which then led to the cancellation of the scheduled 2020 IC.
The IC is the biggest worldwide tournament in the sport of AFL and is open to all nations except for Australia. This is mainly due to the presence of the professional AFL competition and an abundance of semi-professional leagues in the country.