LEAGUE: Far North team make case for defence by reaching final

Commitment to strong defence saw the Nga Puhi mai te Hiku o Te Ika team reach the grand final of the New Zealand National Maori Rugby League tournament at Rotorua.
Inspired by that commitment, the Far North regional team manager Shirley Neho is keen to challenge the current New Zealand Rugby League structure, which excludes Northland teams from the National Junior Championship (NJC).
"This competition [NZ National Maori Rugby League tournament] is the only one Northland takes part in at a national level," she said.
Since competing in the 2007 season, Northland representative teams have been unable to play in national competitions  due to the NZRL competition restructuring process. At the time, the reasons given were soaring costs and poor organisation at a regional level of competitions, but Neho said the impact of that decision is hurting promising players.
"The NZRL cancelled the stepping stone for players to progress through to bigger things and more opportunities when they cancelled the NJC," Neho said.
She  believes Northland should be involved in the national junior competition at least to develop the young players in the northern region.
The Nga Puhi team was predominantly made up of players who competed in the NJC with the Northland Under-18 side three years ago, before the region was axed from the competition.
"Those players got to travel and see the country and get to know what playing at a national level was like - a lot of that team got further opportunities in league because they were exposed in the competition. "Several Northland players had moved to Australia to play for NRL feeder clubs thanks to their exposure in the NJC set up - players such as Shane Pumipi, Linton Price, Brendan Hikaka, Wiremu Ratana and Kenny Te Whata."

 NZRL community programme's manager and part-time Portland league player Dain Guttenbeil said while the NZRL was very aware of the talent in Northland, there were other factors to consider.
He said the region was more than able to put together a competitive representative side but its organisation in club football and the communications between Whangarei and the Far North had slipped over the past few years, becoming fuel to the argument for Northland's exclusion from the rep competitions.
"All the focus went into one team ... the union boys would come across and make the team very strong, but no one thought about club footy," he said.
However, change is in the air for the game in the north, with the announcement of the new Northern Zone structure scheduled in the next couple of weeks, including the appointment of a general manager  and a  development officer.
Further changes would stem from the Sport and Recreation New Zealand review released in February, which looked set to change competitions and the whole structure of the game in the country over the next two years.
Despite the turmoil the game in the region is going through, the pride of wearing northern region jersey during the National Maori tournament was  evident in the Rotorua tournament.
Daley Johnson, Ratana, Hikaka and Price returned from their respective Australian bases to play, lining up with players from Hikurangi, Kaikohe, Kaitaia, Kawakawa and further afield.
Nga Puhi defeated last year's champions Counties-Manukau, Te Awa Kairangi but lost to Pare Hauraki during pool play.
However, they managed to finish top of the pool and qualified to meet Auckland, who won the competition, in the final.

 Two members of the Nga Puhi squad, Price and manager Neho, were named in the tournament team.