3 Dec 2013

Sport: Marum ready for next step with PNG Queensland Cup team

11:48 am on 3 December 2013

Michael Marum will hit the ground running this week after being confirmed as the inaugural coach of Papua New Guinea's entry into the Queensland Cup rugby league competition.

Marum spent more than a decade as a player and coach with the Agmark Gurias in the local Digicel Cup competition and was also an assistant coach with the Kumuls at the Rugby League World Cup.

With PNG's first pre-season fixture against Northern Pride just two months away Marum will on Tuesday preside over the start of a three week selection camp in Port Moresby, from which 53 players will be whittled down to a final squad of 25.

Michael Marum says he can't wait to get started.

"I think it's a step forward for me. I've always been coaching the PNG local sides here and I feel probably I need to improve a bit on my coaching again and this is where probably I will have to learn a few things through the guys that are supporting me. We will be just concentrating on working hard and turning up and playing and the results probably will come later but the first year, the first few games just prepare the boys as much as we can and we know once we put them through proper training and everything else they will give us the result we want."

The PNG team will play their home matches at Kokopo, with their first competition game away at the Redcliffe Dolphins on March the 2nd.

The franchise is also in talks to host a final trial against Super League Champions the Wigan Warriors on February the 15th, the week before the World Club Challenge.