Cook Islands Rugby League Association capped off its domestic season with a successful Rarotonga League 13s competition, which concluded on Saturday with Tupapa Panthers completing a clean sweep.

The Panthers finished the competition unbeaten, claiming the Minor Premiership for finishing top after the round-robin competition and the premiership title after beating the Arorangi Bears 32-12 in the final at the National Stadium in Nikao.

Association secretary and competition coordinator Francis Toa was pleased with the grand finale on Saturday, hailing it as “great”.

“The grand finals is always the pinnacle of our games and to see great community spirit supporting their teams, it’s a winner for Cook Islands Rugby League. Those drums at our grand finals games totally added to the atmosphere, the crowd in their vibrant club colours was amazing and who better to emcee our event than the famous ‘General’ George George. He just brings the grand finals to life!” Toa said.

This year’s 13s competition featured six teams – Panthers, Bears, Avatiu Nikao Eels, Titikaveka Bulldogs, Ngatangiia Matavera Sea Eagles and TKV Warriors.

“The inclusion of the Takuvaine Warriors helped create more competition for us this 2025 season. They proved that they are in to stay for the long run and I am looking forward to having them as a regular contender in our tournaments,” Toa said.

“It was tough on the clubs, as the past years with only five teams in the comp, there was always one team having a bye/rest per round. With Warriors in, it eliminated the break and it was games all the way through.”

Toa was also pleased with the level of competition, noting its improvement since the 2023 Pacific Games, where Cook Islands men claimed bronze.

“Since SPG (Pacific) Games in 2023 the standard of league locally has risen dramatically. It’s apparent that those who have competed at that event and afterwards at regional or next level rugby as a player, as coaches and team administration capacity has helped to raise those standards. The demand for good quality footy has also risen as well.”

She congratulated the Panthers for an amazing season, achieving the rare feat of finishing the competition unbeaten.

“Congratulations to Tupapa for their achievements this 2025 season. The only team that came close to beating them this year was our 2024 defending champs Avatiu/Nikao Eels in round one where the score ended up with a 24 all draw,” Toa said.

“However, they are not the first ones to achieve such great feat – I believe Ngatangiia/Matavera Sea Eagles achieved the same undefeated title in 2019 under the coaching of Bobby Hansen.

“But I won’t discredit Panthers on an amazing performance this 2025 season. You can tell this is a team that has been training plus more. Their level of discipline on the field is next level and of course they have a great coaching and management staff behind them.”

Toa acknowledged Panthers coach Darren Piri for his years of service guiding the team.

“I believe Darren has been coaching the Panthers for a good 20 years now so if we want to talk about accomplishments – that’s the real accomplishment there, as there have been players that have come and gone through the Panthers Club but this guy and his management team stayed the same for many years.”

The competition also featured women’s matches, which were cancelled heading into the final rounds due to a lack of players.

However, Toa said the cancellation of the women’s competition did put a damper on the season, and she hopes Women’s Rugby League can come back strong next year.

“I found this year, there was just a lack of interest from women to participate. I started seeing red flags prior to the onset of the season first with the Lady Bulldogs withdrawing and then Lady Panthers, Lady Eels citing numbers issue,” she explained.

“I had to go into the club myself to see what’s happening. We even changed a ruling at the beginning at the year to allow a 9s format in the games to counter the dropping numbers but that didn’t work.

“I think for us to work, we must team up with key leaders who are hungry to see women’s league grow and who are able to drive women’s rugby league in the community like we did when we first started.”

However, Cook Islands Rugby League’s development programme was a smash hit.

“Mini Mods was such a big hit for all our children this 2025 season. I watched as the numbers grew each and every week and likewise the support from the parents. We had so many children this 2025 season, we didn’t have enough medals for everyone,” Toa said.

“I’d like to thank our coaching staff and volunteers who gave their time every weekend to help out our kids.”

The Mini Mods would start off with a values-based programme focused on “RESPECT”, teaching children the four key pillars of league that they needed to learn to respect:

1. Their coaches because they have their time to teach them how to play,
2. Their teammates because rugby league was not an individual sport but a team sport and that each child had to learn to play with their teammates,
3. Their opponents because in order for us to have a game, we must have our team and also an opposing team and that they had to shake hands at the end of the game regardless whether they won or lost, and
4. To respect our officials in the middle as they are the law of our games and it didn’t matter whether we liked their decisions, we had to respect them.

“Making them repeat this every week until they understood the assignment and hearing them repeat this at the end of the season without me reminding them what those values are, are a win for me,” Toa said.

Reflecting on the 2025 season, two things stood out for Toa.

“Firstly, our positive stand with our officials to address issues (concerning) the community’s treatment of them. It was needed and I think we spoke for many other sports codes as well that was going through the same situations. It was a setback in our calendar but it was something that needed to be done,” she said.

“The second was the increased media presence to our community locally and also globally. Our media crew worked hard to ensure we get those updates out and get publicity around our community forums. This also shows how technology is changing our environment and that social media is now being the fastest way to communicate to our community. This is now a must for all sports codes.”

On behalf of CIRL, Toa thanked their sponsors: Vodafone Cook Islands, Polynesian Media Tai Blake, RaroMart MegaStore, BSP Bank, Kurnell Stingrays for prizes and merchandise, CIPS, Afato Ioane, Shimran Raj, Denise and Kave Mocedike medics on the day, Mama Bee and Aunty Mairi Heather at the gates and CISNOC vice president Jason Lindsay for his support.

“I’d like to give a special shout out to our amazing emcee George George who always gives that electric grand finals feels at all our games. Our media team CB official and G-Dubb 88fm and Mata for their shows, CI News, CI Herald, CITV Sports.

“Thanks to our officials’ team and all our participating clubs the Avatiu/Nikao Eels, Arorangi Bears, Titikaveka Bulldogs, Ngatangiia/Matavera Sea Eagles, Tupapa Maraerenga Panthers and the Takuvaine Warriors.”