Papa New Guinea has long been on the NRL’s wish list, and it looks like this could finally be granted, with the Pacific Island country seemingly set to receive their own expansion team. 

With negotiations still underway around a $600 million, 10-year funding plan from the Australian government to prop up the team, the league has made it’s interest in the region well know, with Australia’s Prime Minister’s XIII taking on PNG’s version of the team over the past weekend. 

And while this campaign has been a roaring success, top bosses at the NRL believe they’re only just getting started. 

How the NRL plans to make PNG a rugby league powerhouse

It seems that PNG is the next frontier for rugby league, with NRL CEO Andrew Abdo committing to invest heavily in the country’s interest in the sport over the coming years. 

“We want more and more content here, so we’ll be bringing and thinking about more and more games, international games, Test matches and potentially an NRL and NRLW game for sure,” Abdo told SMH.

“We’ve put a lot of hard work in, it’s been the culmination of a lot of effort from a lot of people on both sides – Australia and Papua New Guinea.

“Hopefully [there] is an announcement soon. As you’ve heard our chairman [Peter V’landys] say this is something that is strategically important for the Australian Rugby League Commission.

“Expansion and potentially having a team out of Papua New Guinea is definitely exciting for the game.” 

Australia took down PNG 42-20 in a star-studded clash Sunday.