Former Liberal treasurer and inaugural Perth Bears board member Joe Hockey says no one person has the power to make or break the NRL’s new West Australian team, including billionaire Kerry Stokes.
The entire Perth Bears’ executive team descended on Perth on Monday ahead of its first official board meeting this week, with Hockey declaring the state’s NRL club had the potential to bring two sides of the nation together.
Despite recent NRL fanfare, Stokes’ Seven West media – which holds the broadcasting rights to the AFL – has
criticised the WA Labor government for financially supporting the Perth Bears.
The sustained Seven West criticism has raised questions about the club’s viability to win corporate support and survive in an AFL town when it enters the competition in 2027.
Hockey said he didn’t believe any one man could determine the future of the Perth Bears.
“I’m not sure he’ll back the Bears, but I have a very high regard for Kerry Stokes. I’ve known him for many years,” Hockey said on Monday.
“I don’t think any one person is going to make or break the franchise.”
Former Channel 7 national news director and former editor of
The West Australian newspaper Anthony De Ceglie was poached by the NRL to head up the team.
De Ceglie said the board, chaired by former Liberal minister Ben Morton, was working to lock in the team’s values in its first official meeting on Tuesday.
“This is the first step in making sure the strategic foundations of the Perth Bears are firmly in place,” De Ceglie told
The Australian Financial Review.
Hockey, the former federal member for North Sydney, grew up supporting the North Sydney Bears, which was relegated from the NRL after the 1999 season.
He said he had been nagging NRL chairman Peter V’landys to revive the team for years.
Perth Bears chief executive Anthony De Ceglie. Stefan Gosatti
“[V’landys] held a gun to my head and said ’you’re joining the Bears. If you’re going to nag me about the Bears for all these years, you’re going to have to step up,” Hockey joked.
After retiring from politics in 2015, Hockey served as Australia’s ambassador to the United States until 2020, before founding lobby firm Bondi Partners, which counts former WA premier Mark McGowan as a senior adviser.
Morton described feeling a mix of excitement and trepidation ahead of the board’s first meeting, which is set to begin with a tribute to the history of both the North Sydney Bears and rugby league in WA.
While recognising its history, the former federal cabinet minister stressed it was ultimately a new club and the board intended to devote time to defining its new identity before making any major decisions.
“We’re not a relocation, we’re not an amalgamation, we’re not a takeover, but we’ve got two very strong histories we’re bringing together,” he said.
The board is expected to meet in WA several times in the coming months, but Morton said it intended to venture east to attend the club’s Legends Round later this month.
Other members of the Perth Bears board include former North Sydney Bears board member and TV sports presenter James Bracey, WA sports administrator Christina Matthews and Racing NSW executive Jacqueline Johnstone.
Cash Converters executive
Peter Cummins has also been named to the board.
Cummins led a pitch to establish the Western Bears as an NRL team which collapsed in September last year after it decided not to make an offer on a license fee.
The club has named rugby league hero
Mal Meninga as its inaugural coach, with the NRL great to leave his role as the Kangaroos’ head coach to lead the Bears in the 2027 season.
Former federal treasurer and other members of the new Perth Bears board are meeting in Perth, where AFL rights holder Kerry Stokes’ company wields a lot of clout.
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