The Perth Bears enter the NRL in under a year. Rivals are hardly shaking in their boots
“Welcoming our biggest signing to date”, the Perth Bears posted last week on social media. “Our official mascot Kodi joins the team.”
While the tone of the announcement was tongue in cheek, there was also a grain of truth to it.
Mal Meninga is hoping to hit the ground running with Perth Bears at their home ground HBF Park.MICHAEL HOWARD
The NRL’s incoming 18th franchise don’t exactly have the rest of the competition shaking in their boots with the 16 players they have unveiled so far.
There is still nearly
half a top-30 roster to fill and a lot of space remaining in their $12.1 million salary cap for 2027, when they will be joining the league.
But as the attention of the NRL turns to Perth on Saturday for a double-header at Optus Stadium, the steep challenge confronting the start-up has become clear.
Perth are the first NRL team to be launched in a developing rugby league state since Melbourne Storm in 1998, but have received no salary cap concessions to help them attract top players.
Former Canterbury playmaker Toby Sexton was the Bears’ first signing.GETTY IMAGES
Unlike the
PNG Chiefs, who will follow the Bears into the NRL in 2028 bankrolled by a $600 million Australian government package, they also don’t have a war chest of tax-free cash to lure would-be recruits.
“We had to follow the same precedent we did with the Dolphins and we didn’t give the Dolphins any such salary cap dispensation,” ARL Commission chair Peter V’landys said. “We haven’t really given PNG any salary cap dispensation. All we’ve asked the [PNG] government for is to give tax relief.
“The salary cap hasn’t changed. We’ve done that because the clubs have always indicated it would be unfair if we did anything other than have the same salary cap for everyone.”
V’landys believes Perth have done a good job so far with recruitment and “are probably doing better than what the Dolphins were in attracting players” at the same stage before they entered the NRL in 2023. The Bears, too, are conveying confidence, with coach Mal Meninga this week stating their goal was to make the finals.
They are yet to land a marquee player, though. Their first acquisition was former Canterbury halfback Toby Sexton and their biggest catches since have been Melbourne’s back-up playmaker Tyran Wishart, Storm centre Nick Meaney and Penrith premiership winners Scott Sorensen and Liam Henry.
There are myriad other obstacles for only the NRL’s second new team in 20 years to overcome.
One obvious issue is the tyranny of distance, with Perth a five-hour flight from Sydney. Not only do players have to move away from family and friends, but those in the NRL squad who don’t make Meninga’s line-up from round to round face travelling across the country and back every week to play for feeder teams North Sydney Bears and Brisbane Tigers.
Another complication is the property market in Perth, where housing prices have surged due to chronic under-supply and renting is less affordable than in any other capital city.
Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie previously ran the local newspaper in Perth.STEFAN GOSATTI/AFR
This year’s Rugby League World Cup in October and November also stands to impact their first pre-season with their internationals to report to training later and with Meninga’s assistant and ultimate successor Ben Gardiner coaching Samoa.
Off the field, the Bears have yet to launch a membership program, and the access to fans that engenders. In contrast, the Tasmania Devils reported a founding membership base of more than 200,000 in 2024 – four years before they were due to become the AFL’s 19th team.
They also faced a rough welcome from local newspaper the
West Australian, which is affiliated with AFL rights holder Seven, and Bears chief executive Anthony De Ceglie’s past role as the tabloid’s editor-in-chief is said to have strained some relationships in the city.
Not all has been well inside the operation as well. There have been reports this week of tension between De Ceglie and Perth general manager of football David Sharpe, although Meninga – a close friend of Sharpe, the former Sport Integrity Australia CEO – downplayed the issue.
Graeme Samuel sat on both the ARL and AFL commissions.OSCAR COLMAN
“We just had a board meeting this morning. It wasn’t even discussed,” Meninga said on Friday. “You look at every week, the Dragons, they’ve gone through some turmoil. The Broncos have gone through turmoil. Manly’s gone through turmoil. I just think it’s our turn, because we’ve got a double-header over here.”
The Storm were an almost immediate on-field success, winning a grand final in their second season in 1999 with a team captained by legendary front-rower Glenn Lazarus.
Built up with tens of millions of dollars in backing from former owner News Corp, they have secured a footprint of their own in AFL heartland and, either side of a salary cap scandal, have been one of the NRL’s best performing clubs for two decades.
Being highly successful helped.
Graeme Samuel, the only person to have served on both the AFL Commission and the ARL Commission, believes it is “vital” that teams in so-called foreign markets are competitive from the outset.
A former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, he was on the ARL Commission between 2013 and 2017 but spent many more years involved with VFL and then AFL expansion in the 1980s and 1990s – including into Sydney and Brisbane, whose team was also initially called the Bears.
The code’s attempts to establish itself in those cities took many years to pay off – and still faces an uphill battle at a grassroots level in areas such as western Sydney, where the AFL has spent hundreds of millions of dollars since the inception of GWS Giants in 2012.
One of the key lessons was how much winning matters, according to Samuel.
“It’s not just a question of money,” he said. “You can put in $100 million if you like … but it won’t succeed unless you give them playing strength. You’ve got to give a reason for people in very difficult markets to come and say, ‘We’ll support you’.”
Perth’s association with the North Sydney Bears brings with it more than a century of history.NRL PHOTOS
After early resistance from existing clubs to giving new teams a helping hand, the AFL tipped the scales with its expansion sides by providing them high-ranking selections in its draft. It is an advantage that will be afforded to their newest side, Tasmania Devils, who will also have a “sign-on bonus fund” of $5 million outside the salary cap to entice big-name players.
In Sydney, the Swans also had a cost-of-living allowance between 1998 and 2017 that gave them more room in their salary cap.
The stance taken by NRL clubs ensured the Bears wouldn’t be handed any such special treatment.
Perth maintain they are a highly attractive proposition for leading players including because of the warm weather and lifestyle opportunities in the west.
As for funding, they are receiving $10 million a year from the Western Australia government, which will accommodate them at the refurbished WACA Ground while it builds them a $20 million training centre.
The NRL, which will own the team for at least the first five years, has not said exactly how much it will outlay on the Bears beyond the $18.15 million annual grant distributed to every club, which Perth will begin to be paid from November 1. But according to V’landys it is contributing more than the WA government.
Perth have also made strides commercially, claiming the sponsors they have captured will make their playing strip, to be released later this year, the highest-earning in the league.
Then there is their association with North Sydney, whose logo Perth have adopted and who have teams in the NSWRL competitions and a network of juniors, as well as 118 years of history and a ready-made supporter base.
“The North Sydney Bears have a team in the state cup, they have an established junior rugby league, and there is already junior development in Perth itself,” V’landys said. “They’re not starting from complete scratch.”
With an eye on the horizon, the Bears launched their ‘Tracks’ academy at the WA Institute of Sport this week.
With less than a year, though, before they take the field for the first time, the focus is on the near future and the clock is ticking.
As the attention of the NRL turns to Perth for a double-header at Optus Stadium on Saturday, the challenges confronting the expansion team are becoming clear.
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