Papua New Guinea U19

Prior to the independence of Papua New Guinea, various representative sides were assembled. The earliest, in 1956 representing Papua travelled to Australia and defeated regional representative Queensland sides from both Cairns and Innisfail.

In the late 60s and early 1970s, Australian clubs began to notice the rapid growth of the game in PNG and toured to compete against selections of local players but it wasn't until 1973 that the national team first began to form, mainly to tour Australia to play against indigenous sides.

As part of the celebrations for independence in 1975 the first full international test played between the national sides of Papua New Guinea and Nauru in front of a crowd of over 10,000 at Sir Hubert Murray Stadium in Port Moresby was won by PNG by 129 points. Despite significant planning, a reciprocal tour to Nauru planned for 1978 did not eventuate. One of the biggest challenges for the national team was that many of its best players were outside of Port Moresby (some of the strongest leagues were in the north, the highlands and New Britain) and lacked a means to travel to train and play in the team, let alone to fly overseas.

1977 saw Australian Under 17 squad tour Papua New Guinea, and the PNG team reciprocated in Adelaide, with Australia taking the honours in a close match.

In 1978 Australia's National Football League assumed control of the team and diverted all its funding to juniors and entered a side into the 1979 Teal Cup to create a talent pathway to VFL however the initiative was extremely unsuccessful with the Teal Cup team performing disastrously and no players recruited to the senior VFL. Due to no funding for senior international tests (PNG had to cancel its proposed 1979 tour of Nauru), it also caused the PNG government to withdraw all national funding for the sport. Following the withdrawal of the Australian administration and the collapse of the national competitions, an undermanned PNG team played mainly against teams mainly from Queensland.

In 1995 the Mosquitos competed internationally under the moniker of the Mosquitos at the Arafura Games in Darwin, Northern Territory. That year PNG won the gold medal of the International division defeating New Zealand. In the same competition, PNG also competed against sides from Nauru, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

In 1996 the Mosquitoes played a curtain raiser to an Australian Football League match in Perth overwhelmingly defeating the Central Desert Eagles.

In 1997, PNG successfully defended their Arafura Games title again defeating New Zealand.

In 1999 won the gold medal again at the games, once again defeating New Zealand in the final.

In 2000, the Mosquitoes were invited to play New Zealand in a curtain raiser to a pre-season AFL match in Wellington, but were unable to raise the funds required.

In 2002, Papua New Guinea competed in the International Cup in Melbourne. PNG went through the competition undefeated only to lose to Ireland in the Grand Final.

A minor setback to the representation of the Mosquitos was the cancellation of the 2003 Arafura Games due to SARS fears.

Prior to the 2005 International Cup, AFL legend Mal Michael offered to play for the PNG side, but was ruled ineligible by the AFL. Although he was born in PNG, he did not satisfy the criteria since he had moved to Australia at too young an age. Despite Michael not being involved in the side, he tipped PNG to win the competition, hailing the strong growth in the local competitions.

In the 2005 International Cup, PNG again went through the competition unbeaten only to lose the Grand Final to a much improved New Zealand national team. Papua New Guinea's best and fairest player (from the 2005 International Cup) is Navu Maha. Navu also won the award for the best player in the 2005 International Cup series and captained both the 2002 and 2005 teams.

In early 2008, the national team secured its first major sponsor – Telikom PNG – which helped to fund the junior squads competing in Australia and the senior squad's International Cup campaign.

In the 2008 International Cup, PNG, captained by Alister Sioni again went through the competition unbeaten, this time defeating New Zealand in a thriller. 2 points up at the final siren, 17-year-old Amua Pirika kicked a goal after the siren. Donald Barry was best on the ground in the Grand Final. Overa Gibson was best and fairest in the 2008 International Cup. 4 Mosquitos were named in the All-International team – Donald Barry, Overa Gibson, Joe Lla and Stanis Susuve.

A spin-off team, the PNG Maruks club, formed in 2019 to play under different eligibility criteria, won the Asian Australian Football Championships in 2019 in their debut year.