Coast sign PNG teenTerry Wilson
January 29th, 2009
FROM Moresby to the MCG -- that's the path ahead of the Gold Coast Football Club's first international signing, Amua Parika.
The 17-year-old from Port Moresby, this week began training with the GC squad in the build up to this year's TAC Cup under-18 series.
The signing maintains the strong football bond between the Coast and Parika's homeland Papua New Guinea.
And, according to GC recruiting chief Scott Clayton, there is plenty to like about the athletic forward who was particularly prominent when Papua New Guinea won last year's International Cup in the grand final clash with New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
That series is contested by 16 teams from nations where Australia's national game is just starting to develop.
"He showed enough and is certainly worth a punt," said Clayton.
"He can jump and he looks like he's going to be a reasonable size. It's now up to us to develop him.
"We're excited about it and this is just another example that we (GCFC) have an open mind and we're going to be creative."
Quietly spoken Parika took up Aussie rules eight years ago and has plenty of footy blood in his pedigree.
Uncle Navu Maha had a run with the old South Melbourne team and his dad, the late Amua Sr -- who was stabbed to death during a village fight in 1995 -- was a gun for the Port Moresby Mosquitoes.
Parika has Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin as his football hero and no doubt GC chiefs are hoping he turns out half as good as the Hawk spearhead.
The bond between Gold Coast and PNG goes back to the early 1970s and early 1980s when what is believed to be the first Aussie rules 'internationals' were played over a number of years. In more recent times, a number of PNG teenagers have played with Coolangatta in the AFL Queensland second division and two of them -- John James and Donald Barry -- are with division one club Aspley.
In other news, the GCFC has invited a number of 'mature' age players, too old for the TAC Cup competition this year, to train with the squad on a regular basis with a view to playing in the VFL in 2010.
Broadbeach ace Dayne Zorko is one and the others are Justin Myers (Redland), Joel Smouha (Mt Gravatt), Shaun Tapp (Aspley) and Ben Gibson and Ryan Holman from the Morningside Panthers
January 29th, 2009
FROM Moresby to the MCG -- that's the path ahead of the Gold Coast Football Club's first international signing, Amua Parika.
The 17-year-old from Port Moresby, this week began training with the GC squad in the build up to this year's TAC Cup under-18 series.
The signing maintains the strong football bond between the Coast and Parika's homeland Papua New Guinea.
And, according to GC recruiting chief Scott Clayton, there is plenty to like about the athletic forward who was particularly prominent when Papua New Guinea won last year's International Cup in the grand final clash with New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
That series is contested by 16 teams from nations where Australia's national game is just starting to develop.
"He showed enough and is certainly worth a punt," said Clayton.
"He can jump and he looks like he's going to be a reasonable size. It's now up to us to develop him.
"We're excited about it and this is just another example that we (GCFC) have an open mind and we're going to be creative."
Quietly spoken Parika took up Aussie rules eight years ago and has plenty of footy blood in his pedigree.
Uncle Navu Maha had a run with the old South Melbourne team and his dad, the late Amua Sr -- who was stabbed to death during a village fight in 1995 -- was a gun for the Port Moresby Mosquitoes.
Parika has Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin as his football hero and no doubt GC chiefs are hoping he turns out half as good as the Hawk spearhead.
The bond between Gold Coast and PNG goes back to the early 1970s and early 1980s when what is believed to be the first Aussie rules 'internationals' were played over a number of years. In more recent times, a number of PNG teenagers have played with Coolangatta in the AFL Queensland second division and two of them -- John James and Donald Barry -- are with division one club Aspley.
In other news, the GCFC has invited a number of 'mature' age players, too old for the TAC Cup competition this year, to train with the squad on a regular basis with a view to playing in the VFL in 2010.
Broadbeach ace Dayne Zorko is one and the others are Justin Myers (Redland), Joel Smouha (Mt Gravatt), Shaun Tapp (Aspley) and Ben Gibson and Ryan Holman from the Morningside Panthers
