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18th club, whose next?

Matt_CBY

Juniors
Messages
326
I follow the tigers, no way in the world I'm switching clubs for the bears . My league loving mates are the same, we'd change for a new team though.
Except my mate who follows Parra, he reckons he wouldnt change clubs full stop.
Club s**t.

So if the Bears come in. Nothing changes for you except you may get to see your team play in person more often. Win.
 

Centy Coast

Juniors
Messages
1,281
I could be wrong but wasn't there an article this week saying that neither the Bears nor Perth will be admitted to the league as a stand alone? In essence, they have to make it work together if either wants a team?
100%, the Bears will not get in because Sydney/NSW are FULL.
The Central Coast was a great option especially back in 2014, players like Nicho, the Saifiti Brothers, Ethan Strange, Bradman Best, Scotty Drinkwater and many more would’ve just played locally.
Perth needs an established NRL junior pathways, they need an East Coast feeder arrangement.
The Melbourne Storm know this and they have done this since day one, look at their success.
Perth Red keeps talking about local junior numbers, that’s fine, but unless you are a junior juggernaut like Penrith forget it.
Cronulla have a very strong junior base, it is way bigger than the Bears but way smaller than the Panthers.
It is just different, when I was in WA recently and watched the local footy the standard was very low, give it 10 years, it would be like a person from VIC, SA or WA coming to the Central Coast and watching a local AFL game and thinking wtf is this I am watching lol.
Unfortunately it’s what you grow up with, in VIC, SA and WA, everybody lives and breathes AFL, in NSW and QLD it is rugby league, in NZ it is rugby union.
 
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docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,813
100%, the Bears will not get in because Sydney/NSW are FULL.
The Central Coast was a great option especially back in 2014, players like Nicho, the Saifiti Brothers, Ethan Strange, Bradman Best, Scotty Drinkwater and many more would’ve just played locally.
Perth needs an established NRL junior pathways, they need an East Coast feeder arrangement.
The Melbourne Storm know this and they have done this since day one, look at their success.
Perth Red keeps talking about local junior numbers, that’s fine, but unless you are a junior juggernaut like Penrith forget it.
Cronulla have a very strong junior base, it is way bigger than the Bears but way smaller than the Panthers.
It is just different, when I was in WA recently and watched the local footy the standard was very low, give it 10 years, it would be like a person from VIC, SA or WA coming to the Central Coast and watching a local AFL game and thinking wtf is this I am watching lol.
Unfortunately it’s what you grow up with, in VIC, SA and WA, everybody lives and breathes AFL, in NSW and QLD it is rugby league, in NZ it is rugby union.
The thing is the NRL are literally the guardians of entry. Bears threaten to relocate the Perth team back to North Sydney? Bye Bears. Bears want to play 6 games a season at NSO? Bye bears. Bears threaten to rename the Perth Bears to just The Bears? Bye Bears.

It will all be written in to a legal contract to ensure that a Perth Bears team is run in, operated out of and remains in Perth.

The reality is, despite the handful of people getting their knickers in a twist on an outdated RL forum, 5 years after the Perth Bears have been playing, nobody will be going 'oh there just an old Sydney team blah blah blah'. It will be are they winning games? Are they a chance of winning the premiership? And a 7 year old kid in Perth won't be going 'I cannot support this team on the ground that they are a transported franchise from North Sydney and as a citizen of the West Coast I cannot lend my support to a team with foreign origins.' That 7 year old will go 'Bears are cool' or 'I like red, that's my team'. And random 20 to 30 years old will go 'Hey we have a team, let's see if they're good'.

Next to nobody in Perth, except for a handful of losers, will even give a shit that they used to be called North Sydney.
 

Canard

Immortal
Messages
35,092
The thing is the NRL are literally the guardians of entry. Bears threaten to relocate the Perth team back to North Sydney? Bye Bears. Bears want to play 6 games a season at NSO? Bye bears. Bears threaten to rename the Perth Bears to just The Bears? Bye Bears.

It will all be written in to a legal contract to ensure that a Perth Bears team is run in, operated out of and remains in Perth.

The reality is, despite the handful of people getting their knickers in a twist on an outdated RL forum, 5 years after the Perth Bears have been playing, nobody will be going 'oh there just an old Sydney team blah blah blah'. It will be are they winning games? Are they a chance of winning the premiership? And a 7 year old kid in Perth won't be going 'I cannot support this team on the ground that they are a transported franchise from North Sydney and as a citizen of the West Coast I cannot lend my support to a team with foreign origins.' That 7 year old will go 'Bears are cool' or 'I like red, that's my team'. And random 20 to 30 years old will go 'Hey we have a team, let's see if they're good'.

Next to nobody in Perth, except for a handful of losers, will even give a shit that they used to be called North Sydney.
So just come up with a whole new team identity then.
 

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
Messages
48,847
No one gives a f**k about the bears in Sydney let alone Perth.

As I've said, V'landys and co are throwing the bears a very small bone just to stop them thinking they're a real chance of coming back.

The bears are too arrogant and deluded to realise that and think the NRL wants them.
 

Canard

Immortal
Messages
35,092
100%, the Bears will not get in because Sydney/NSW are FULL.
The Central Coast was a great option especially back in 2014, players like Nicho, the Saifiti Brothers, Ethan Strange, Bradman Best, Scotty Drinkwater and many more would’ve just played locally.
Perth needs an established NRL junior pathways, they need an East Coast feeder arrangement.
The Melbourne Storm know this and they have done this since day one, look at their success.
Perth Red keeps talking about local junior numbers, that’s fine, but unless you are a junior juggernaut like Penrith forget it.
Cronulla have a very strong junior base, it is way bigger than the Bears but way smaller than the Panthers.
It is just different, when I was in WA recently and watched the local footy the standard was very low, give it 10 years, it would be like a person from VIC, SA or WA coming to the Central Coast and watching a local AFL game and thinking wtf is this I am watching lol.
Unfortunately it’s what you grow up with, in VIC, SA and WA, everybody lives and breathes AFL, in NSW and QLD it is rugby league, in NZ it is rugby union.
Of course it's way behind. The reality is, no state, including NZ is League anywhere above amateur level.

That's all the more reason to start investing in it though, like we should have done 30+ years ago.

Unfortunately the game was to broke and rife with political infighting to have any vision.
 

Centy Coast

Juniors
Messages
1,281
No one gives a f**k about the bears in Sydney let alone Perth.

As I've said, V'landys and co are throwing the bears a very small bone just to stop them thinking they're a real chance of coming back.

The bears are too arrogant and deluded to realise that and think the NRL wants them.
V’Landys loves us, he has stated this many times, as does Uncle Nick and he is the one who really pulls the strings.
 
Messages
14,070
Exactly.
Who do you follow in the comp now?
How hard would it be to follow a club that you don't go for just because they've moved over there. Feck that. You'd be against that team.
Whilst a WA stand alone team would have everyone on board, and they can keep their other team too.
Except PR, he'd have to ditch the Storm.
WAWA's hate the Vicos more than everyone else combined haha
A year or two ago you were pushing for the Bears to relocate to Perth.
 

docbrown

Coach
Messages
11,813
So just come up with a whole new team identity then.
You're missing the point.

5 years from now - the Perth Bears IS the new team identity. To a person from Perth, the Bears will mean just as much as what a Pirate would. That means there's no reason why a whole new team identity is necessary.

But the Perth Pirates don't get to control a NSW junior talent pool. They have to go into negotiations with East Coast feeder clubs every few years. With the Perth Bears their NSW juniors are theirs for the next 30 years and beyond - and they're going to need them - regardless of whatever hole people want to stick their heads in.

Furthermore, the Perth Pirates means bugger all to people in NSW & QLD where the majority of TV viewers are. Perth TV viewers will be less than 5% of the total viewership. Games involving Perth will be some of the lowest attended and lowest watched in the league. But you improve that by adding a brand known to people in NSW & QLD - the Bears. Instead of Perth vs Sea Eagles, it's the Bears vs Sea Eagles.

The reality is if the Bears had relocated to Perth back in 1999, you'd already be accepting them as a team like any other.
 

Centy Coast

Juniors
Messages
1,281
This is one of my eldest sons earliest rep teams with Sydney North 2007, there are six current NRL players featured.
Vlad and Bad Boy Bubbys main Sharks player and Reanimates main Sea Eagles player can be found in this picture.
Both Jacob Liddle (St George) and Connor Watson (Roosters) would join the team in 2008.
What a shame the Bears were no longer in the NRL.

IMG_4795.jpeg
 
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i0Nic

Juniors
Messages
10
It will be the Perth Jets. This Bears push won’t go ahead because the bears consortium are too self interested. The NRL don’t want the bears entry to be about an old Sydney club nostalgia, and worse still, take games away from Perth into a crowded Sydney market.
 

Steel Saints

Juniors
Messages
935
Which they never did right? Only playing there after they "joined" with Manly.

Well a new stadium was built on the Central Coast. In terms of the criteria, it should've been a significant plus for the Bears at the time. But it wasn't. Bears last game was in '99, while the opening of the stadium occurred the following year.

Quarter of a century later, it is still one of the better stadiums in the state. If anything the criteria was a joke, especially when you consider how difficult it is these days to fund an upgrade or build a new stadium.
 

Wb1234

Referee
Messages
26,146
Well a new stadium was built on the Central Coast. In terms of the criteria, it should've been a significant plus for the Bears at the time. But it wasn't. Bears last game was in '99, while the opening of the stadium occurred the following year.

Quarter of a century later, it is still one of the better stadiums in the state. If anything the criteria was a joke, especially when you consider how difficult it is these days to fund an upgrade or build a new stadium.
Pretty sure bears partly funded the construction too
 
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