Posted By Staff Reporter
TEAM Kumul has only three weeks to get it right.
While Kumul coach Adrian Lam does not need to be reminded of that glaring fact, three former Kumul ‘hard men’ in Laipen Wallen, Ben Bire and Dr James Naipao felt they had to get something of their chest in separate statements. This has been brought on following the 50-10 loss by PNG to the Australian Prime Minister’s XIII in Kokopo on Sunday. Wallen (pictured right), who was a member of the team that beat New Zealand in 1986 said the Kumuls of today should not be losing by 40 points and shared similar sentiments of Finance Minister James Marape that the team management must be held accountable. “If Kumul great and coach John Wagambie can do it against Great Britain during the 1980’s as well, we should be at least be more competitive with the level of training and expertise heading the coaching staff,” Wallen said. He added that a lot of money, time and effort has been put in the preparation. “I urge you players who have been given the golden opportunity to play smart thinking football under the direction of the coaches,” Wallen said. Wallen, like messers Bire and Naipao were big aggressive players that were known for their intimidating presence. Bire (pictured left) dubbed “big foot” and Dr Naipao felt the players did not have the mental toughness to put them in the right frame of mind to handle the bigger Australians. “If you are tough up there (brain) then the players wouldn’t even be considering the oppositions size factor. We took the 94’ Kumuls all the way to the World Cup quarterfinal before losing to the Kiwis in England,” Bire said. “You can have all the fancy training methods but if the players are not fine tuned with the right kind of words we won’t have a chance...It’s like a fight,” added Bire, who retired in 1997 after representing his country from 1991 to 1996. He also highlighted that players who are prepared to put their body on the line for pride and honour for their country will get his respect. “We held the Kangaroos to 6-0 at half-time in Townsville in 92’ because our mental preparation was good…we gave everything,” Bire said. Naipao said winning stems from a strong defensively structured game, aided by flexibility, agility and above all the right mental focus. “PNG failed to show that they had a pattern, although they showed some fight in the second-half.” The National Comments are closed.
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