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The question then is whether we can stop him playing for anybody else if we don’t want him. That could be his argument. It might not be a coincidence that this all seemed to happen right after we announced the Kelly signing.
That's where I was coming from earlier - it might be us or someone else with us getting nothing in return. And the Storm move was in motion before Kelly announcement. Lomax approach us before Xmas about letting him play somewhere else.
Yeh its going to be weird. I imagine itll be like u let him rejoin or he can join other teams (no law background btw - at least not workplace related). The other question however will be how much cap do we have left and will he be forced to take a pay cut. If he does play... does he sandbag so we have to not play him and he gets a free paycheck for the next 3 years? Feels like its going to be messy regardless
I think Marky Mark should be on 1 wing next year anyway ahead ot Lomax and then toss up what short arse you want on the other To'o or JAC.
Same here. Just wanted to raise some odds
Marky Mark is brilliant but I think he is still too much of a liability at Origin level. He makes the difficult look easy but still makes plenty of basic errors.
Worried that the bears and the PNG team will struggle to compete.Exclusive: Perth Bears NRL CEO on taking games to Singapore
The newest NRL side the Perth Bears want to play in Singapore as the rugby league franchise prepares to launch for 2027.
www.cityam.com
Exclusive: Perth Bears NRL CEO on taking games to Singapore
NRL rugby league team Perth Bears wants to play in Singapore
The newest NRL side the Perth Bears have demonstrated their league’s ambition to dominate global rugby league ahead of their debut, saying they want to play in Singapore.
Perth Bears will join the NRL in 2027, becoming the first rugby league team to join the Australian top flight since the Dolphins in 2023.
And chief executive, former editor-and-chief of West Australian Newspapers Anthony De Ceglie, says he’s jumping on board with NRL commissioner Peter V’landys’s plan to dominate rugby league.
V’landys has touted the NRL buying a stake in the English Super League, albeit talks have softened, while he has spearheaded a season weekend in Las Vegas in a move that is edging the Australian league to the AUS$1bn per season revenue mark.
“We are in a very different time zone to Sydney and Melbourne,” De Ceglie tells City AM. “We are in the economic Asian powerhouse time zone and that’s really handy for us.
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“I’d love to take the NRL to Singapore; it could be the Perth version of Las Vegas. There’s so many opportunities because of the time zone of Perth, not just into the east coast market, because it means we can play that late game, but also taking the game into Asia could be huge.”
Perth Bears to Singapore?
Perth will join the NRL in 2027 while a team from Papua New Guinea will follow them in the following season as a federal Australia looks to curb China’s influence in the Pacific.
It means the NRL will expand to 19 teams, while last year’s Ashes series between Australia and England — the first in 20 years — demonstrated how both the Super League and its southern hemisphere equivalent could work together.
Last year Brisbane Broncos legend Darren Lockyer and his Australian consortium purchased English Championship side London Broncos with the view of seeing them in the Super League next year, showing a sign of growing cross-league interest.
While De Ceglie, who says Perth will play home games on the west coast and in Sydney, wouldn’t be drawn on whether the two leagues should be financially entwined, he says that V’landys is “very adamant that he does what is good for the game”.
“They [V’landys and the NRL] are very impressive,” he adds.“They always think about what’s good for the game and what’s good for the viewer. I can’t imagine them doing anything that isn’t going to, at its heart, maintain those two goals.
“We’re the most watched sporting code in Australia and we have a monopoly on it in Western Australia. It’s a pretty easy selling point, but we’re capitalising on the growth of the game. We’re very lucky to be doing that.”
I agree, the Phins recruited fairly well off the bat but have seriously struggled with depth. Imagine how much two new teams will struggle with those same problems.
And Bears will have to Scum it and set up juniors in another state to have hope of developing anything. PNG at least can keep it in house.
Perth will have more of a junior base then Melbourne did.
2 more victories for us each year…possibly.
It's very exciting!!
For season 2026
