11 Dec 2015

Sport: Melbourne Storm match in Fiji delayed

12:37 pm on 11 December 2015

An exhibition match in Fiji between the Melbourne Storm rugby league team and a local Prime Minister's selection has been postponed until next year at the earliest.

Storm officials flew to Fiji in June to finalise a deal with the Fiji Government, beginning with a nine-a-side match in Suva this month.

The Storm also agreed to train in Fiji and hold coaching clinics and open trials for local players, and to bring an NRL regular season match to the country from 2017.

Melbourne Storm star Marika Koroibete is returning to Fiji with his NRL team later this year.

The Melbourne Storm will have to wait until next year to begin their search for the next Marika Koroibete. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The Fiji National Rugby League's new CEO Timoci Naleba says his organisation was not involved in arranging the initial deal and says they have too much going on at the moment to make it work this year.

"The concept is really good and we would like to have that as an annual event but beginning next year. There's been a lot of changes here, beginning with the governance issue, and so with those changes going on we would like to get all our resources organised to get our house in order".

Timoci Naleba is travelling to Melbourne next week to speak with club and NRL officials and expects to finalise details on Fiji's relationship with the Storm going forward.

He will also meet with officials in Sydney and Brisbane.