Vet Lessy aiming to fire for PNG

By JAMIE HARO
PAPUA New Guinea touch footy elite Kele Lessy is gearing up to give his best in what will be his hoorah for the open men’s side as they prepare for the 2024 Touch World Cup in England.
The 34-year-old from Gulf is one of four players in the veteran class but every bit as enthusiastic and determined to make every post a winner in the sunset of their careers.
Lessy counts his participation at the 2015 World Cup in Australia where his side claimed the bronze as the highlight of his representative career.
“This is my third World Cup and it will be my last with the open men’s because as much as I want to continue, we have a lot of young talents stepping up to the challenge and I am sure they will eventually earn their spots in the side reach the standard that PNG touch reached in 2015,” he said.
Lessy however did not shut the door completely on his touch career with his continued involvement for the PNG as a masters player very much an option for him.
“There’s still an opportunity to represent PNG at the 2028 World Cup in New Zealand but switching to play with the senior men’s division will be the obvious option for me so the younger players can have that opportunity to shine,” he said.
Prior to starting his journey with the code in 2006, Lessy played soccer and was fortunate to make his first national presentation for the PNG Kapuls junior team in 1996.

He was the lone student from the Butuka Primary School (Now Butuka Academy) at Sabama to be part of a junior team that represented PNG at John Bomben Under-11 Carnival in Cairns, Australia.
Fast forward a decade, he began playing touch footy in the Corporate Touch Port Moresby and featured in multiple teams until his recent inclusion with the Funeral Home Parapellas.
“I can’t recall which year I started representing CTPM at the annual national touch championships throughout the country but it has been a great experience since 2006.
“For the PNG Games, I only represented Team NCD in 2009 and that was the only time, didn’t attend the 2012 games in East New Britain, 2014 in Morobe and 2017 in West New Britain.
“I made my debut for the national team in 2012 when PNG participated in the National Touch League in New South Wales, Australia,” he told The National.
Between 2013 and 2014, Lessy and his team spent playing local matches and trials overseas to prepare for PNG’s World Cup return and the 2015 Pacific Games in Port Moresby.
“It was a great lead-up for us I guess, especially to return to the World Cup since PNG’s last participation was in 1999. We had no world ranking after missing three world cups so the idea was to get set a new rank,” he said.
The 2015 World Cup still remains a remarkable moment for any team sport in the country when PNG’s open men’s, open mixed and senior men’s 30s won the country’s bronze medals at Coffs Harbour, Sydney, Australia.
“The 2015 World Cup was my first on and winning that bronze medal was a really an emotional and happy feeling, we attended that event knowing well we were the underdogs and were there to get the country’s world ranking back and the bronze medal finish was massive for us,” he said.
The same open men’s team returned from the 2015 World Cup with months remaining to add finishing touches to their training preparations before winning the country’s first gold medal at the Pacific Games in Port Moresby.
“2015 was the year for all of us to say we did set a benchmark for touch footy at the World Cup and then in the Pacific Games,” he said.
Meanwhile, he was also part of the mixed team that claimed silver in the open mixed against Samoa (2015).
Then in 2019 the open men’s side made it to the silver medal playoff again however they lost to Japan in the World Cup in Malaysia. Despite this disappointment, the team went on to prepare and defended their gold medal title at the Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
In 2023, he was privileged to receive another call up for his third Pacific Games appearance following a strong performance at the National Touch Championship in Popondetta earlier that year.
PNG finished with three silver medals this time against arch-rivals Samoa.
“The 2023 Pacific Games was my last but I am really looking forward to playing at the World Cup in England next month and make a shift into the senior men’s and do some coaching and mentoring to help our young players in our local competitions,” he said.