Take a look at the ladder at the halfway mark of the season and you’ll see that the PNG Hunters are sitting pretty at the very top.
Take a look at the draw for the second half of the season and you’ll soon realise that it is going to take something rather extraordinary to displace them.
Starting this weekend against Souths Logan, the Hunters play five of their next six games at the National Football Stadium in Port Moresby, a venue in which they have only suffered two defeats since it opened last year, an 18-12 loss to Sunshine Coast in Week 1 of the finals.
The only team to enjoy success against the Hunters at their home this year are the Norths Devils and coach Mark Gliddon said it was some advice from Brisbane Broncos scout Brian 'Pinky' Edwards that got them on the front foot.
"I rang 'Pinky' before we went over though and asked his thoughts and he said, ‘silence the crowd’," said Gliddon of Norths' 32-18 win earlier this year.
“I said, 'How do you do that?' and he said, ‘if you're scoring tries, the crowd ain't saying anything.’
“It's a bit of a gimmick, but we used it and that was what we said to each other, ‘Silence the crowd’. If you can silence the crowd it means that you're in front.
“I'll be very surprised if anyone else beats them over there. I could be wrong, but they're very hard to beat over there.”
They've also proven difficult to beat in Queensland this season, with the Falcons the only other team to have gotten the better of them this year with a 38-14 win at Sunshine Coast Stadium in Round 6.
