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February 22, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n After a 20-year career in journalism \u2013 most of it for this masthead \u2013 Michael Chammas has just resigned to become general manager of the newest NRL club, the Papua New Guinea-based PNG Chiefs, as they prepare to enter the competition in 2028. I spoke to him this week, shortly after his first board meeting in Port Moresby. <\/p>\n Fitz: Michael, this is, if I might say, a significant moment in your life. I am half tempted to begin by warbling Adele\u2019s Hello from the Other Side … This is your first time on the other side of the tape recorder. How does it feel?<\/p>\n MC: Odd. I\u2019ve also just attended my first press conference in Port Moresby in this role. I was glad, when it ended, that I didn\u2019t have to go back and transcribe the quotes.<\/p>\n Fitz: But here\u2019s the thing. On the eastern seaboard of Oz, there are only two kinds of print journalists: those who work for the artist formerly known as Fairfax, and those who wish they worked for the artist formerly known as Fairfax. You\u2019ve not only done that, but you\u2019ve done it brilliantly. Other people would kill for a career like you have had. You\u2019re right up there with [Nine sports reporter] Danny Weidler when it comes to your hit rate of breaking big stories. I don\u2019t get you leaving that?<\/p>\n MC: [Laughs] I would not disrespect Danny by comparing myself to him. He\u2019s the king! For me, it\u2019s not about leaving journalism. It\u2019s about staying in rugby league. It is the game that I love. When I was nine months old, my parents threw me over the fence at a sold-out Jubilee Oval to watch the Dragons [St George]. In kindergarten, the teachers told my parents, \u201cYour son doesn\u2019t know his numbers. \u2018Number one\u2019, he keeps calling him \u2018Mick Potter\u2019. Number two is \u2018Ricky Walford\u2019 [both former players]. What is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n Fitz: And …?<\/p>\n MC: Well, rugby league was everything to me. It always has been. I played for almost 20 years in the Parra [Parramatta] comp. I just wasn\u2019t good enough. I barely passed English at school, but I loved rugby league, and I worked my arse off to make sure that I could be involved in the game somehow, and that\u2019s how I ended up in journalism. I\u2019ve loved it for 20 years, and it has been an absolute privilege, but I\u2019m ready for a new chapter. I honestly believe the Chiefs are going to be a success, and to be part of the inaugural team that puts this together, it\u2019s special. I have no regrets.<\/p>\n Fitz: \u201cNo regrets\u201d? Mate, I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve got no regrets, \u2019cos you\u2019ve been doing it for all of FIVE MINUTES! How did this gig come about?<\/p>\n MC: In 2024 [chair and head coach of the Sydney Roosters] Nick Politis and Trent Robinson invited me into the inner sanctum of the Roosters in LA. I got to spend four days with them in the lead-up to their season-opener against the Broncos in Las Vegas. I sat in on team meetings, went to team dinners, watched the halves do their work in video sessions, things like that. Something changed from that day. I didn\u2019t just want to write about it any more. Ricky Stuart and Craig Fitzgibbon gave me the chance to do the same thing with the Raiders and Cronulla last year. It was an incredible experience. In journalism, I loved taking on News Corp, but the chance to actually build a team, and having that common goal with everyone to win a premiership, I wanted that.<\/p>\n Fitz: And good luck to you. But what qualifies you to do that heavyweight gig, when you have no track record of doing anything remotely close to it?<\/p>\n MC: I can understand when people say \u201cbut you\u2019ve never run a football team before.\u201d<\/p>\n Fitz: But you\u2019ve never run a football team before!<\/p>\n MC: Very few general managers who walk into a role for the first time have got the network of contacts that I have in the game. I know all the club chairs, the CEOs, the recruitment managers, the player agents and the players. I\u2019m not naive: there\u2019s a lot to learn. But I will surround myself with the right people. I\u2019ve never been afraid of hard work.<\/p>\n Fitz: How will you get players and coaches to go to Port Moresby? All of us who have visited PNG love the place, and more particularly the warm-hearted people. But, by any measure, Moresby can be very dangerous. I genuinely mean no disrespect to that wonderful country when I say if you put 50 PNG \u201craskols\u201d (gang members) in a room with the 50 toughest bikies in Australia and called out \u201cFIGHT!\u201d my money would go on the raskols to be wearing the bikies\u2019 balls for earrings within five minutes. So, how do you get people to go there?<\/p>\n Related Article MC: By giving them an adventure of a lifetime. If they are just coming for a pay cheque, they\u2019re not the people we want. We want players who want to come here and embrace this country. And, obviously, there are going to be some strong security measures that are going to be taken care of, but those who want to be part of it are going to be treated like royalty over here. They\u2019re going to be absolute rock stars in a way they won\u2019t be treated anywhere else. But also, we create an environment that they love, and their families will love. The families are the key.<\/p>\n Fitz: Will you live there with Mrs Chammas and your three beautiful kids?<\/p>\n MC: Of course! I can\u2019t sell the dream to players if I don\u2019t live it myself.<\/p>\n Fitz: What did your fine wife say at the prospect?<\/p>\n MC: We came over a couple of weeks ago to look it over. We both know it will be a great adventure for us and our kids. We\u2019re excited.<\/p>\n Fitz: But convincing others of that? Without pissing in your pocket, one of your other features as a journalist is that you\u2019re not known to piss in other people\u2019s pockets \u2013 you are not an FWT, Fan With a Typewriter. You\u2019ve gone in hard. You\u2019ve revealed scandals, exposed rorts, written up atrocities. There\u2019s got to be people who cross the street when you are trying to do business on Big Boofy Blokes Boulevard in Burly Heads? <\/p>\n MC: Maybe. People might not have liked everything I wrote, but I hope that I\u2019ve always been fair.<\/p>\n Fitz: OK. I speak now on behalf of the Australian taxpayer. The PNG Chiefs have got $600 million out of the federal government over the next 10 years. WTAF?? What are you doing with our money?<\/p>\n Related Article MC: Yeah. Well, one thing you\u2019re never going to get me into is a discussion on geopolitics. You want to know about what kind of players we\u2019re after, we can chat. Look, I know everyone\u2019s got to write to their own opinions on what the Australian government has agreed to. But I know that to the people of PNG, this is going to be massive. And it\u2019s our job to make sure that we do them proud.<\/p>\n Fitz: OK, but hang on. The salary cap is a lazy $12 million between friends, and we taxpayers are giving you \u2013 dot four, carry five, subtract two \u2013 $60 million a year! Where\u2019s the rest of our money going??? These are the legitimate journalistic questions, you are now on the other end of?<\/p>\n MC: I don\u2019t know the ins and outs of everything that was agreed between the governments, but a lot of that money is going to [government programs] as well, not just the PNG Chiefs. There\u2019s plenty of planning going into the infrastructure and resources we\u2019ll need to build for the team and for the city to accommodate us.<\/p>\n Fitz: That\u2019s a whole lot of pathways and infrastructure!<\/p>\n MC: Yeah, there\u2019s a lot of work to be done in the Pacific, Fitz.<\/p>\n Fitz: Sure, but that team will be having a turnover, no joke, of tens of millions of dollars a year! Jesus wept, Michael, that\u2019s a massive amount of money in anyone\u2019s language, and it is legitimate to ask what credentials you have to run it? <\/p>\n MC: I\u2019m not trying to avoid the question with you around the way the money is spent and what the plans are, but my job is to help build a successful football program. The answers you want are probably better sought from the NRL, our CEO and chair.<\/p>\n Fitz: How do you get on with NRL chair Peter V\u2019landys?<\/p>\n MC: I have a lot of respect for Peter. I love the way he has invigorated the sport. I admire how he thinks differently. And I think he feels I\u2019m similar-minded and it will suit the role here in PNG. For a time there we weren\u2019t talking, but my editor made me mend that fence. We can both be pretty stubborn.<\/p>\n Fitz: You\u2019ve been doing your job in holding him to account. Is it possible there was a bonus in it for him to get you this gig, so the pressure on him eases?<\/p>\n Related Article MC: I\u2019ve been passionate about doing something like this for a while now, and I think he saw that passion, and I\u2019m grateful for the opportunity that he and [NRL chief executive] Andrew Abdo have given me. But if that\u2019s the case, this is a pretty exorbitant way of silencing someone, by giving them a job.<\/p>\n Fitz: Now, let\u2019s just say that two years from now, one of your players commits an atrocity on the Gold Coast, just after the match against the Titans. Let\u2019s say you hear that I\u2019m about to go on a rant that might scare the horses and the sponsors? Can I expect a call from you beginning, \u201cMaaaaaaate …\u201d ?<\/p>\n MC: I can tell you one thing. I won\u2019t waste your time trying to get from you where the leak came from.<\/p>\n Fitz: So your instinct will be to say, \u201cYes, it was him. He broke the window. We\u2019re sorry\u201d?<\/p>\n MC: I would expect to have the same policy I\u2019ve had with journalism: honesty.<\/p>\n Fitz: OK, last thing. I\u2019ve looked this up, and want to say to you: \u201cGutpela lak, mate, tasol mi tingting yu bai gat hatwokok tru long yu.\u201d What did I just say?<\/p>\n MC: \u201cGood luck, mate, because you\u2019ll need it\u201d, or something like that?<\/p>\n Fitz: All right, now I am impressed.<\/p>\n MC: The app has helped!<\/p>\n @Twitter @Peter_Fitz<\/p>\n The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/d1ac89618cc645a8971088c8c727547b6b3d0f94.jpeg\")
Former Herald sports writer and now PNG Chiefs general manager Michael Chammas in Port Moresby. <\/p>\n![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0a5b979a64c58b17cef941276eb47561bf14fb11.jpeg\")
Michael Chammas in Port Moresby. <\/p>\n![\"Loloata](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cee19e7151b56d2cc41d829fc0d2974158fcbfb4b184d09d0402fa1d6c83aefe.jpeg\")
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Peter FitzSimons<\/a> is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 22, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-495277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}