Papua New Guinea are anticipating a tough week when the Pacific Cup netball series gets underway on Tuesday night.
The hosts are in a rebuilding phase after a string of senior players retired following last year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
The Pepe's first match of the tournament is against the Cook Islands later tonight, with Fiji and Samoa to play the opening game.
The President of the PNG Netball Federation, Julienne Maliaki, says while the inexperienced team are playing down expectations on the court, the country is excited about experiencing more top-level competition.
"The level of competition is going to be very very high and I'm excited about bringing this tournament to PNG because we haven't hosted a tournament for a very long time. The last time we did was in 2005 and that was just between Singapore and Papua New Guinea and this is on a larger scale. We're using this as benchmark and a catalyst for the 2015 Pacific Games that PNG is going to host."
