Hunters long break due to unavailability of stadium

THE Papua New Guinea Hunters have explained that the unavailability of Sunshine Coast Stadium, the home ground of the Falcons, is part of the reason why they are having a three-week break.
The SP Brewery-sponsored side were scheduled to face the Falcons in round 14 match on the weekend but it was pushed to July 21 as the venue will be used for the Queensland Super Series junior tournament which was held on the Sunshine Coast over the weekend.
Hunters chief executive Scott Barker told The National on Friday that the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) had tried to make the draws fair for all teams in the competition, however, Barker said having a 15-team competition and given the circumstances of the venues, a long break like this was inevitable and other teams would also go through similar breaks in their respective schedules.
“Unfortunately, due to the Sunshine Coast Falcons home venue being unavailable this weekend, we had to move our round 14 game with them to July 21,” Barker said.
“This is the reason for the double bye over the next two weeks. Round 15 is our second of third scheduled byes that all teams have.
“We should have had the double bye later in the year when the whole competition has a bye on the weekend of July 20 then we have our official third bye the following week.
“I know some other teams have byes either side of the whole competition weekends off, which would put them in a similar position to us currently.
And while not ideal, it is a by-product of having and uneven number of teams in the Hostplus Cup competition.
“The QRL draw is extremely complex for various reasons and they do a great job to accommodate everyone’s requests as well as venue availability.”