NCD Claims PNG NRL Bid Academy National Championship

In an epic PNG NRL Bid Academy Year 9/10 Boys Grand Final showdown on Saturday, May 10th, 2025, at the Santos National Football Stadium in Port Moresby, NCD edged Lae with a gritty 12-10 win to clinch the National Championship title.

The inaugural National Championship was hosted last year in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, where the Lae boys defeated NCD in the U19 category to walk away with the coveted trophy.

Licking their wounds from last year at the hands of the flamboyant ‘Rainy Lae’ kids, NCD had a case to prove on home soil, with the determined players rising to the occasion to exact revenge on Lae and bag the elusive silverware.

A tightly contested first half saw NCD take a slight 4-0 lead over Lae. Both sides upped their tempo and intensity in the second half, where they both scored two tries each, but NCD beat Lae with a two-point margin.

NCD coach, Ben Wemin, was happy for his boys who followed the simple instructions given and executed the game plan well. 

“I was very impressed with my boys’ performance. Their defense was solid, they completed their sets well, made a few errors, and stuck to the basics,” Wemin said.

“We’ve improved a bit last month but today, the boys stepped up and made their presence known. I’m proud of them.”

Wemin added that the future focus for the PNG NRL Bid Academy in NCD is to upskill the players - both boys and girls - in terms of mastering passing skills, tackling tactics, and so on.  

Meanwhile, in the Open Female decider, the NCD girls bagged the championship following their hard-fought 8-4 victory over the valiant Goroka lasses, while Central defeated Lae with a 19-14 win in the Year 7/8 Division.