Report: This Is Pretty Hard

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

Rugby league fans are suddenly outspoken fashion critics today, as the PNG Chiefs finally unveil their new logo and jersey.

And everyone seems to be very impressed by the ominous and the highly intimidating face-painted mascot, as the NRL expansion franchise continues to showcase their tribal aesthetic in the lead up to 2028.

At a ceremony held in Port Moresby this morning, the league’s 19th team revealed that the jersey will be predominantly black, while the logo is red, white and gold.

This announcement comes as the new club was dragged before the courts by New Zealand Rugby, who have taken issue with the NRL now having a team with the same name as the Waikato Chiefs. The overall legal finding was that nobody really cares because there seems to be a major deficit in the 10-15 different names that can used for professional sporting teams around the world - and at least the PNG Chiefs logo is being embraced by their local tribes and isn't dampened with racist undertones like the Kansas City Chiefs.

Meanwhile, the wider NRL community are overly impressed with the artwork, having braced themselves for a cringey NRL brain snap like the time the Redcliffe Dolphins decided that they did not need to have a geographical location and instead decided to base their entire club's culture around a cartoon sea mammal.

The general consensus is that these colours and the logo are pretty hard - and might be the first actually intimidating logo in the NRL.

In fact, the only way this logo could be any more frightening for opponents would be if the PNG consortium decided to name the club 'The Headhunters' - which is what the Papuan community had hoped for.

With a tribesman's face painted red with a Cassowary bone through the nose, the mascot's eyes are very unnerving - and the jet black and gold tribal designs will contrast nicely with the porcelain skin of Papua New Guinea hero, Zac Lomax.