Pepe's Blood New Caps

The PNG national netball team announced on Thursday last week included three new names among a list of capable and experienced campaigners. The three, Marie Otio - Shooter, Rhoda Kerea - Mid Court and Defender Nisha Omi, were plucked from the National U21 team that participated at the World Youth Netball Cup in the Cook Islands recently.

The PNG Netball Federation had been looking seriously at the trialing of new talent for the national squad to at least give the national selectors some depth in the availability of players at international level.

Julianne Leka-Maliaki, Secretary of the PNG Netball Federation has been at pains to try and elevate the standard of netball in the country especially in other centres to encourage the participation of talent outside Port Moresby. This has been a particular concern for netball in PNG as the pool of players when looking into the future is fairly sparse.

Rhoda Kerea will the the newest of the bunch as both Marie Otio and Nisha have trained or travelled with the Pepe's. Rhonda was noticed by talent scouts at recent Central Province tournaments and over several years her consistency and talent development has impressed selectors.

The last time a youth development program for netball was effectively functional was some 13 years ago and the prodigy from that program was Mona-Lisa Leka, the current Pepe's captain. Netball in PNG has unfortunately slid in that area for a range of reasons, but certainly not from a lack of trying.

Rhoda, Marie and Nisha now join the training squad which is undergoing some intense drills regime under the stewardship of Mike Petrides and Pole Kassman to prepare them for the Mini Games later this month, the Nations Cup and so on.

Joining the squad in Brisbane will be young Tiata Baldwin who, standing at 193cm, will give some height to the team.

As you would expect, these young players will be taken under-wing by their contemporaries in the team and depending on their individual resolve, they should blossom to make a name for themselves on the international stage and make Papua New Guinea proud.

Well done to the three and good luck.

The two images are of 1)Rhoda Kerea (ing grey tunic) in an U21 training match against Veupunama and 2) Marie Otio defending for Paramana (black and white tunic) in a recent POMNA premier division match.