Is the PNG club even gonna happen?

[SirPies&Beers]

He would be better off scrutinising Perth. The organisation is threadbare, with no branding and skeleton staff and they are meant to start pre-season in 14 months.

It has all the makings of a shit show and it will be all the doing of the NRL, who will pass blame to a tough buy in of RL in Perth. The West Australian is gonna have a field day.

you sound like a dumb dumb.

 

[Pippen94]

Storm said they wouldn’t stand in Munster way if he wants to go

Both him and Papps are getting on in years and they have younger players to come in

So you just make going to Perth rumour

 

[Wb1234]

So you just make going to Perth rumour

Nah

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/superstar-cam-munster-more-than-open-to-perth-bears-move/news-story/a1dc2dcec27ee98f5d5098fd69fd102d?amp

Massive blow for Storm as Ryan Papenhuyzen set to earn $2 million with rival team

Ryan Papenhuyzen appears to be the first genuine option floating around. Read more here.

au.news.yahoo.com

 

[Ideas Man Stephen]

you sound like a dumb dumb.

Hmmm, I think my post was a little more eloquent than yours.

 

[SirPies&Beers]

Hmmm, I think my post was a little more eloquent than yours.

you sure about that no ideas stevo? there's at least 2 posters on this forum who seem to be all across the perth bears inner workings and their views heavily destroy your opinion. maybe you missed this when they hadnt been formally announced as a club yet but those posters been on the money from day dot. maybe have a read of their stuff.

 

[Billythekid]

I think there will continue to be concern until things start to materialise a bit more with PNG.

 

[Gobsmacked]

you sure about that no ideas stevo? there's at least 2 posters on this forum who seem to be all across the perth bears inner workings and their views heavily destroy your opinion. maybe you missed this when they hadnt been formally announced as a club yet but those posters been on the money from day dot. maybe have a read of their stuff.

so nobody's allowed an opinion other than your favorite posters?
Boring..

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

What's peoples thoughts on this team being named Port Moresby instead of PNG? Keep PNG for the national side only?

 

[SirPies&Beers]

so nobody's allowed an opinion other than your favorite posters?
Boring..

its not really an opinion they are having by saying there's no branding and has a skeleton crew when that simply isn't true.

branding is a bloody bears ffs, red and black. their organisational structure is almost fully complete. not opinions, facts cob

 

[Wb1234]

What's peoples thoughts on this team being named Port Moresby instead of PNG? Keep PNG for the national side only?

Nah unless png gets a second side one day

 

[Gobsmacked]

its not really an opinion they are having by saying there's no branding and has a skeleton crew when that simply isn't true.

branding is a bloody bears ffs, red and black. their organisational structure is almost fully complete. not opinions, facts cob

Meh, not really. The Dolphins are still forming their " brand" and all the others continue to evolve. Have the Bears settled on the logo yet, team song ? How much are they going to lean into the history or are they more leaning towards being considered a new franchise.
Trainers, assistants, nutritionist, physio, office administrators, development officers, pathways management, scouts??
They're running all of these at the standard NRL level? If not, you could consider it a " skeleton" crew.

I don't care one way or another but just because an anonymous poster on a forum says something doesn't make it fact, doesn't matter how much you like them.

If you disagree, fine, then play ball not the man.

Like I said, I think you're capable of more.

 

[Gobsmacked]

What's peoples thoughts on this team being named Port Moresby instead of PNG? Keep PNG for the national side only?

I think they should be called " New Guinea" that way they can market themselves to the entire island..if they do they and engage the Indonesia side of the island... We have international expansion.
New Guinea Thunder

 

[Ideas Man Stephen]

you sure about that no ideas stevo? there's at least 2 posters on this forum who seem to be all across the perth bears inner workings and their views heavily destroy your opinion. maybe you missed this when they hadnt been formally announced as a club yet but those posters been on the money from day dot. maybe have a read of their stuff.

Absolutely I am sure my response was more eloquent than your original one yes.

Good to see you now can elaborate a little more than one sentence at a time.

So please, delve a little further if you would. Which part of my comment would be heavily destroyed by these individuals with high level intuition on the subject of the Perth Bears? I will help you by putting my original “dumb dumb” comment back below:

He would be better off scrutinising Perth. The organisation is threadbare, with no branding and skeleton staff and they are meant to start pre-season in 14 months.

It has all the makings of a shit show and it will be all the doing of the NRL, who will pass blame to a tough buy in of RL in Perth. The West Australian is gonna have a field day.

 

[Ideas Man Stephen]

its not really an opinion they are having by saying there's no branding and has a skeleton crew when that simply isn't true.

branding is a bloody bears ffs, red and black. their organisational structure is almost fully complete. not opinions, facts cob

They are absolutely the definition of a skeleton organisation. They have a board with next to no staff. How on earth can you call that “organisational structure” to be “almost fully complete”?

You think colours and a moniker is branding complete? No logo, no functioning website, no contact details, no fixed address.

In two very short paragraphs, I think you are doing a pretty good job of demonstrating who the dumb dumb is around here.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

3.3% of the WA population is Indigenous.

That's some 4D chess by the NRL

Sigh..... 3.3 % of the population, not counting the percentage of those with Pacific Islander heritage make up of the population that having someone of Mal`s background might appeal to.

Crucially what is the percentage of Rugby League players of those background ~60%, and let`s face it from Beetson, Lyons, Laurie Daley to Latrell and Reece Walsh, Indigenous players have always punched far above their weight in being icons and fan magnets for the game. Just the sort of player base we want to tap into in W.A. So perhaps Mal`s background may just have played a part in his selection. Perhaps, because I`m only speculating.

 

[Pippen94]

Sigh..... 3.3 % of the population, not counting the percentage of those with Pacific Islander heritage make up of the population that having someone of Mal`s background might appeal to.

Crucially what is the percentage of Rugby League players of those background ~60%, and let`s face it from Beetson, Lyons, Laurie Daley to Latrell and Reece Walsh, Indigenous players have always punched far above their weight in being icons and fan magnets for the game. Just the sort of player base we want to tap into in W.A. So perhaps Mal`s background may just have played a part in his selection. Perhaps, because I`m only speculating.

Mal's background is cook islands. Indigenous population in WA probably see AFL as part of their community like koori's with league in NSW..but yeah be Kevin Sheedy

 

[Pippen94]

I think there will continue to be concern until things start to materialise a bit more with PNG.

Don't be concerned

 

[Perth Red]

Meh, not really. The Dolphins are still forming their " brand" and all the others continue to evolve. Have the Bears settled on the logo yet, team song ? How much are they going to lean into the history or are they more leaning towards being considered a new franchise.
Trainers, assistants, nutritionist, physio, office administrators, development officers, pathways management, scouts??
They're running all of these at the standard NRL level? If not, you could consider it a " skeleton" crew.

I don't care one way or another but just because an anonymous poster on a forum says something doesn't make it fact, doesn't matter how much you like them.

If you disagree, fine, then play ball not the man.

Like I said, I think you're capable of more.

re perth: 18 months to go yet, wont have any players to work with until 15 months time. CEO is busy putting the office together first, all the on field staff will come in from middle of next year onwards. Be good if we have the office sorted out by Xmas, hoping to see a foundation membership for then. I expect PNG will be 6 months behind Perth in its club development.

 

[Gobsmacked]

re perth: 18 months to go yet, wont have any players to work with until 15 months time. CEO is busy putting the office together first, all the on field staff will come in from middle of next year onwards. Be good if we have the office sorted out by Xmas, hoping to see a foundation membership for then. I expect PNG will be 6 months behind Perth in its club development.

Agreed, still plenty of time.

 

[insert.pause]

re perth: 18 months to go yet, wont have any players to work with until 15 months time. CEO is busy putting the office together first, all the on field staff will come in from middle of next year onwards. Be good if we have the office sorted out by Xmas, hoping to see a foundation membership for then. I expect PNG will be 6 months behind Perth in its club development.

Peter V’landys has Perth Bears dancing on a leash​

The rugby league boss’s conditions for the new NRL club involve caps on spending, irking directors.

Mark Di StefanoColumnist
Sep 9, 2025 – 6.54pm

The directors of the Perth Bears gathered at North Sydney Oval in August to convene the second board meeting of the NRL’s newest club. For footy, they’re no slouches.
The inaugural nine-person board is chaired by former Liberal cabinet minister (and Scott Morrison consigliere) Ben Morton, with his former colleague (and Bears fan) Joe Hockey alongside, Cash Converters’ Peter Cummins, legal academic Emma Garlett, former WA Cricket chief executive Christina Matthews, ex racing administrator John Dumesny, former copper Jacqueline Johnstone, North Sydney businessman Daniel Dickson and Nine broadcaster James Bracey (another Bears tragic).

Rugby league chief Peter V’landys talks up the Bears in Perth. Getty Images
One of the orders of business was poring over the club’s constitution, which had been finalised by NRL headquarters. A draft had been submitted to the corporate regulator months earlier, outlining how much control the Sydney-based Australian Rugby League Commission (the board of the NRL) would have over the Perth operations.
The ARLC is chaired by Peter V’landys, and because the Bears are effectively owned by the NRL, it was always going to be this way. But now, there were numbers attached to it. One “special condition” stood out.
The Perth Bears would need its annual budget approved by the ARLC. But also any “purchase, sale or disposal of assets” over $50,000 outside the budget would need sign-off from Sydney.

That is, if the Perth-based organisation wanted to buy office furniture, some laptops, vending machines for the players, and it wasn’t declared ahead of the financial year, chief executive Anthony De Ceglie would need to check with V’landys if it was okay to invoice.
It was viewed by some on the board as almost an insult to their governance bona fides. Why go to the trouble of even having a board if every sneeze was being monitored by Nurse V’landys?
They were pretty much handpicked by him in the first place. It explains the presence of figures such as Dumesny and Johnstone, both friends and associates in the racing industry. Some directors have internally called for the 50-grand threshold to be raised significantly.

Ball & chain​

Governance hand-wringing is certainly not the Perth Bears’ most immediate problem. The glacial pace of setting up the organisation is catching some offside.
A story in The Australian last weekend suggested one of those was Mal Meninga, who was reportedly getting cold feet about signing on as the club’s inaugural coach. He’s been facing questions for the last week about his attempts to hire Gold Coast Titans recruitment manager (and friend) Ezra Howe. He’s facing possible legal action for allegedly building a spreadsheet of players he’d like to poach for the Bears while still employed by the Titans.

There were also delays in the West Australian government releasing funding for the upstart organisation, which necessitated an interest-free bridging loan from the ARLC.
V’landys keeping the Bears on a tight leash isn’t just an insight into how he operates when money is involved. The spending threshold will likely be the same by the time the NRL gets its other expansion club up and running in Papua New Guinea. It’s slated for 2028, and one PNG official has already been embroiled in a corruption scandal.
Some on the Morton-led board believe, quite rightly, they should be given more freedom to conduct their own business.
Another “special condition” in the Bears’ constitution is that any new hire with a salary over $300,000 also needs ALRC approval. Last week, the club named Katie Roberts as its first commercial manager. Roberts is well-liked and was hired after doing more than seven years with Racing & Wagering WA.
With a CV like that, of course, she’d get V’landys’ blessing.

Peter V’landys has Perth Bears dancing on a leash

The rugby league boss’s conditions for the new NRL club involve caps on spending, irking directors.

www.afr.com