New-look Papua New Guinea side put up dominant show at netball Nations Cup

SINGAPORE – With four victories in four matches at the Mirxes Nations Cup, it is hard to imagine that Papua New Guinea had been winless on the international stage since 2022.

Determined to improve their fortunes after they finished last at the Pacific Netball Series in Australia, the country’s governing body for the sport, Netball PNG, made a slew of changes.

First was a change to the coaching staff, with Annie Iamo and Helen Edwards replacing Gimanama Crowdy and Margaret Opina as the coach and assistant coach respectively.

They then held a trial in July to recruit Australian-based players competing in Queensland’s Hart Sapphire Series, a third-tier netball competition, to bolster their squad.

Despite the full team only coming together just a few days before the Nations Cup, which began last Sunday, Iamo is pleased with how her team have gelled in Singapore.

“We had a couple of new inclusions in the team, I’ve got a mixture of experienced and young players. I think that’s what is working for us.

“I get the experienced ones in there to control the flow of the game,” she said, after their 67-51 win over Sri Lanka at the OCBC Arena on Wednesday.

In the other matches, Singapore won 55-31 against developmental side Singapore A while the Cook Islands beat Canada 63-37.

At world No. 36, Papua New Guinea, who have six Australian-based players, are the third-lowest ranked team among the six sides at the ongoing Nations Cup.

The other teams are world No. 19 Cook Islands, Sri Lanka (20), Singapore (26), Canada (unranked) and Singapore A.

The Pepes opened their campaign with a 52-50 win over Singapore, before beating Canada (52-34) and the Singapore A team (52-40) and now sit at the top of the standings with eight points.

Iamo explained that the move to add players from Australia was to raise their competitiveness against their Oceania counterparts.

Said Iamo: “It hasn’t been good for us because in the Pacific Aus, we’ve been playing Tonga and Fiji. They’re from our region, they’re pretty good, they’re much, much better than us, so we’ve been trying to regroup and see what we can do to up the standard of our game.”

She hailed their impact on the team, adding: “Most of them are in my mid-court, so they bring speed and they are very nippy too, so that’s a plus for us in the team.”

For Maddison Siyvia and Yves Angelina Maree Chee, playing for Papua New Guinea is a way to represent the country that their parents used to live in.

Midfielder Chee, 18, noted that the excitement has been evident among her family as she has received calls and tips from them while she is in Singapore.

She said: “We get all of the stories from our mums and dads about how it’s back there and we finally get to be part of that culture and set the legacy we want to set.”

Siyvia, who plays centre and wing attack, hopes that this will have an impact on the sport back home.

The 22-year-old said: “This has improved our gameplay already, playing against different countries. You don’t know what to expect, it’s a completely different style, everyone plays differently.

“It’s already improved our games and we can take that back to Papua New Guinea and Australia.”