Football Park, Canberra.

[Percel]

Id like to think that

I actually was in the Navy, and i had sort of heard of this team,but it was really only open to blokes who were not posted away O/S or isolated bases, or at sea etc, so probably only a select bunch were available to be picked.

The ship i was on during the 80's played games against other ships etc but we also played footy against PNG Army teams while up in Moresby and got absolutely flogged, it was good fun actually, but even more interesting was the ships rugby team who played a Fiji team - boy, now that was painful to watch.

I dont think theres anything that ever prepares you to play rugby against a south pacific team.....would have been some tough boys on both sides!

 

[Garlic muncher]

I dont think theres anything that ever prepares you to play rugby against a south pacific team.....would have been some tough boys on both sides!

We had been at sea for 6 weeks working up to 18/20 hours a day, they definitely had fitness, size, skill and strength and they also had fitness, size, skill and strength, did i mention size and strength ?, well they had it.

 

[Garlic muncher]

Just on that photo from the OP, now we have established who it is, it is likely they were playing a combined AFP and state police rep side, or someone similar, maybe Emergency services, Fire services ?

It makes little sense for a Defence services rep team to play a ordinary club side, unless it was a lead up to another game.

 

[BringBackTorps]

Id like to think that

I actually was in the Navy, and i had sort of heard of this team,but it was really only open to blokes who were not posted away O/S or isolated bases, or at sea etc, so probably only a select bunch were available to be picked.

The ship i was on during the 80's played games against other ships etc but we also played footy against PNG Army teams while up in Moresby and got absolutely flogged, it was good fun actually, but even more interesting was the ships rugby team who played a Fiji team - boy, now that was painful to watch.

What were the main reasons that the PNG Army team "absolutely flogged" a very experienced (I assume) AF team? Poor preparation?

Does the ACTFL still own this ground?

Is its location "prime"now?

 

[Garlic muncher]

What were the main reasons that the PNG Army team "absolutely flogged" a very experienced (I assume) AF team? Poor preparation?

Does the ACTFL still own this ground?

Is its location "prime"now?

They were too simply quick and skillfull quite a number of the team had had a good grounding in the game, there are decent standard comps in certain parts of PNG.

ACTAFL AFAIK don't own the ground anymore.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Footy used to be the #1 sport in most parts outside of Moresby, before TV and live RL made it to the highlands, so a decent PNG back in the 80s/early90s makes some sort of sense.

Nothing in Woden is "prime". Feds have basically puleld out, and the ACT govt puts every dollar they spend into Gungahlin. Woden is moribund, and the only value comes from being relatively close to Civic. But, the ground is about as prime as a Woden location gets. I'm not sure who owns the ground, but suspect its ACT govt.

 

[Garlic muncher]

Footy used to be the #1 sport in most parts outside of Moresby, before TV and live RL made it to the highlands, so a decent PNG back in the 80s/early90s makes some sort of sense.

Nothing in Woden is "prime". Feds have basically puleld out, and the ACT govt puts every dollar they spend into Gungahlin. Woden is moribund, and the only value comes from being relatively close to Civic. But, the ground is about as prime as a Woden location gets. I'm not sure who owns the ground, but suspect its ACT govt.

Very strong in West New Britain, not sure why, Australian defence forces or missionaries similar to Brother Pye up in the Tiwi Islands.

My father was actually stationed on Manus Island in the 1960's whilst in the Navy, PNG natives were playing footy then.

Just a guess but the old Naval, military base there is probably the refugee center now.

In WW2 regiments etc were often based around sign ups from various states, so for EX the 5 th battalion may have been made primarily from blokes from Victoria and Tasmania etc etc, that could go some way to explaining why the game is stronger in some areas than others, depending on where certain troops were based, not sure they did that in the Navy, but they may have.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

I would also guess that WWII and maybe the post-war colonial period (pre-1975) played a part.
It did surprise me all those years ago as akid though. I was living in a hillbilly country town in Tas, a friend of the family had some people from PNG over and not only did they know what the four posts at each end of the oval were about but explained a bit about the game back home. Not much of which I remember now.

I could see it (maybe I imagined it) when I've seen PNG play in the international cup. They play like footballers, perhaps not as well drilled tactically as the likes of Ireland but their instincts around the contests are footballer's instincts.

 

[Garlic muncher]

I would also guess that WWII and maybe the post-war colonial period (pre-1975) played a part.
It did surprise me all those years ago as akid though. I was living in a hillbilly country town in Tas, a friend of the family had some people from PNG over and not only did they know what the four posts at each end of the oval were about but explained a bit about the game back home. Not much of which I remember now.

I could see it (maybe I imagined it) when I've seen PNG play in the international cup. They play like footballers, perhaps not as well drilled tactically as the likes of Ireland but their instincts around the contests are footballer's instincts.

They played in the Teal cup which was a forerunner to the under 18's champs, Teal cup was under 17's though, i remember vaguely 1979 when i was a junior in Canberra i nearly made it through to the ACT team.

Extremely quick and evasive.

 

[Hallstrom]

Hi Guys,
Football park was my clubs home ground last year (I say was because redevelopment is happening as we speak). Football Park was resurfaced before I started at the Woden Blues (Div 3 and 4 club) in 2011 and was one of the best grounds that those divs played on. There are no grandstands anymore just reasonably modern change rooms.
We never trained there though as the ground now has no lights, they were removed in the last redevelopment.

As mentioned the plan is to have ACTAFL and cricket offices built at the ground, new lights and an electronic scoreboard are planned as well.
We are a bit worried about getting back on there as it seems Eastlake may move their Div 1 and 2 teams to the ground from Manuka as apparently it is expensive to use.

Also, we play against ADFA in our divs and those jumpers in the photo are pretty much the same as what they wear today.