The inclusion of a Papua New Guinea-based team in the NRL was announced on 12 December, 2024, as part of the Pacific Rugby League Partnership involving the Australian Rugby League Commission and Australian Government, in which AU$600 million in government funding will support the new team as well as grassroots development and other community initiatives in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands.[2][3] The team will be the 18th or 19th in the NRL, depending on the success of a bid to include a team from Perth, which ARLC chairman Peter V'landys has suggested could be announced before the end of 2024 and enter the NRL in 2027, before Papua New Guinea.[4]
Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea[5] and even regarded its national sport,[6] and efforts to launch an NRL team in the country date back no later than 2008, when prime minister Sir Michael Somare announced a Papua New Guinean bid.[7] In 2014, the Papua New Guinea Hunters entered the state level Queensland Cup competition, going on to win the premiership in 2017.[8]
In February 2021, PNG Prime Minister James Marape declared his hopes of an NRL side in the country by 2025.[9] Through 2023 and 2024, a Papua New Guinea bid was viewed as a frontrunner to enter the NRL, in light of an Australian Government plan to invest $600 million over a 10-year period in rugby league and socio-economic programs in the country.[10] Discussions have included a proposal from ARLC chairman Peter V'landys to offer tax-free status to rugby league players who played for a Papua New Guinea NRL team.[11]
On 12 December, 2024, a Papua New Guinea team in the NRL was formally announced, with the team planned to begin playing in the league in 2028.[3] The name and colours of the team are yet to be determined.
Security agreement: Australia vs China
The Papua New Guinean NRL team will be funded by a $600 million package from the Australian government over a ten-year period,[4] as part of the NRL's Pacific Rugby League Partnership which supports and provides investment into grassroots, pathways, and elite rugby league across Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.[3]
In a separate deal, signed in exchange, the Papua New Guinean Government reaffirmed a security pact with Australia aimed growing relations between Papua New Guinea and China (in addition to other Pacific countries), and China's 2022 policing deal with the Solomon Islands. As part of the deal Papua New Guinea are unable to sign into security agreements with any nation outside the "Pacific Family". If Australia deem Papua New Guinea to be in breach of the security pact, they reserve the right to withdraw funding for the team. In that instance the NRL would then be obligated to axe them from the competition.[12][13][14]
