Former Fiji Bati captain Wes Naiqama has been formally appointed head coach of the Kaiviti Silktails rugby league club.
The 37 year old former NRL star joined the coaching staff of the Ron Massey Cup newcomers earlier this year, after leaving his role with the Newcastle Knights to be a part of Fiji's first semi-professional rugby league team.
Wes Naiqama fends off the French defence during the 2008 World Cup. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Naiqama takes over the reins from Fiji Bati head coach Brandon Costin, who led the team in their debut match and will now focus on his coaching and development roles with the Fiji NRL.
Kaiviti Silktails Chairman Petero Civoniceva said his former international teammate is a perfect fit for the role.
"He is someone that's revered in Fiji. Our decision to take on Wes was one that we were looking towards the future and obviously him being the current assistant coach to the Fiji Bati, we just thought it was a great move for us."
"...Our whole goal is the development pathway for our elite local players hopefully to get those opportunities playing in our Ron Massey Cup season but hopefully gives them a chance to get picked up by potentially an NRL club.
"That's something that Wes is very passionate about...and the playing group were over the moon when we informed them that Wes was going to be taken into that role as head coach of the Kaiviti Silktails."
The Silktails thrashed the Windsor Wolves 40-16 in their first competitive match back in March before the season was halted because of Covid-19.
The New South Wales Rugby League is hoping to resume competitions in July although Petero Civoniceva said the Silktails won't be involved until next year because of the current travel and border restrictions in the region.
"We just knew that it was going to be quite a leap for us to be able to convince the health authorities that we could still travel (between Fiji and Australia)," he said.
"Obviously with the travel isolation that would have to be conducted as well, logistically it just would have been too much of a challenge for us so we did the right thing.
"We called it nice and early, we explained the situation to our players and to their credit they were very much understanding of the situation, although very disappointed after all the hard work they've put in."
The 35-strong Silktails squad have continued their individual training programmes during Fiji's Covid-19 lockdown and Civoniceva, who played 45 tests for Australia and six for Fiji, said the players are looking forward to a return to competitive action in the Fiji domestic competition.
"I think the Fiji National Rugby League [will] look to hopefully start a scaled-down version of their Vodafone Cup which our players will all play in," he said.
"They will represent their local clubs in that competition, which is great. At least they are playing football at a local level and then the plan is heading into November we will run our extended squad for the start of pre-season for 2021."
Kaiviti Silktails players with chairman, Petero Civoniceva. Photo: Facebook / Kaiviti Silktails
Petero Civoniceva said despite not being able to continue their 2020 season the NSWRL have been very supportive and the Fijian club had an open line of communication to express any thoughts or concerns as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded.
He said the Kaiviti Silktails have already budgeted for next year and can't wait for the new season to get underway.
"We're absolutely satisfied that in terms of our funding and support we will be fine to compete for next season...we made some adjustments that enabled us to be able to pull back.
"We unfortunately, like every other sporting club pretty much around the world, had to stand down some staff but they were obviously very understanding of the situation that we found ourselves in and our players as well."
"We were sitting second on the ladder after round one so I thought that was a great achievement in our first game but I think if anything it's a real carrot for the boys now
getting a taste of what it's like to play against an Australian team, a Sydney-based team, to see what the standard was like and now thinking they're ready to take on this challenge and we're really looking forward to next season."