Petero Civoniceva plans to meet with several potential sponsors during the off-season as he again attempts to establish a Fijian side in the NSW Cup after this year's bid came up short.
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The Fijian bid was unable to secure the required funding to satisfy NSWRL requirements by the cut-off date late last month, and Civoniceva has immediately switched his focus to ensuring Fiji will enter a team into the 2019 competition.
In-country funding to cover the expenses of a Fiji team had been secured, but a successful bid would require the Pacific Island nation to pay the costs of visiting teams playing in Suva.
Fiji's bid came close 12 months ago before stumbling at the final funding hurdle, and Civoniceva admits signing a major backer has proved difficult in an environment competing with rugby union.
A Fijian rugby union team was recently granted a place in Australia's National Rugby Championship, and recently secured a naming-rights partnership with Fiji Airways.
Plans to establish a Fijian NSW Cup team are several years in the making, and Civoniceva has been working closely with Queensland businessman Greg Browne in trying to launch a successful bid.
"Fiji's such a rugby union-mad country that proposing a rugby league bid of this kind has been challenging," Civoniceva told Fairfax Media.
"Being such a small country, in terms of leveraging off major corporates, there's not too much to pick from in that the majority are all aligned with rugby union, and deservedly so.
"I'm hoping to meet with some other major potential sponsors that are really looking closely at this. It's just ensuring that this is a viable vehicle in that we want to make sure we can sustain ourselves so we're just looking at a few different models at the moment."
A Fiji bid will look to emulate what Papua New Guinea has done in joining the Queensland Cup four years ago.
The Hunters won the Queensland Cup last month downing the Sunshine Coast Falcons in an historic grand final, following their table-topping season.
Hunters players leave their families behind and come together from all over Papua New Guinea to live and train in Port Moresby for 10 months of each year.
It's a model Civoniceva hopes Fiji could duplicate should they be granted a spot in the NSW Cup.
"We've closely looked at how the PNG model works and in terms of creating an opportunity in Fiji, that would certainly be the way to go, in a training camp, a training facility that local players could come and be based at full-time," Civoniceva said.
"We'd take the best 30, 35 players out of the local competition and just create that as a stepping stone. They'd get the best of what players take for granted in Australia, the best nutrition, strength and conditioning.
"The local competition would exist similar to PNG and there's a real opportunity for those top players to fight for contracts and secure those contracts.
"Given that opportunity, the NSW Rugby League Intrust Cup could be used as a real stepping stone towards potentially an NRL contract. For these guys to secure an NRL contract, you bring that back to Fiji and it's just life changing for your family."
Rugby league is growing in Fiji despite the competition with rugby union, particularly the sevens format of which Fiji became world champions in 2015-16.
There are more rugby league clinics in schools, and competitions across the country have been developed for boys and girls.
"It's blown everyone away the way rugby league has grown here in Fiji, it's just gone to another level," Civoniceva said.
"We've got programs in schools now, we've got the primary schools competitions that are played for boys and girls from primary school right through to high school.
"That in itself has really changed the landscape of the growth of rugby league in Fiji dramatically over the last couple of years.
"There's really some great signs for that grassroots development that certainly could further enhance what a Fiji NSW Cup bid could do."
The retired Brisbane Broncos great was back in Fiji last week in his role as World Cup media manager for the national team, which he represented four years ago after notching 45 Tests for Australia.
He also ran his annual Dash For Diabetes five-kilometre fun run, which was contested by football staff from Australia and Fiji and members of the public.
The Dash For Diabetes fun run is put on by the Petero Civoniceva Foundation and raises money to distribute insulin needles to diabetics across Fiji.
