WA BEARS

[Éamonn an Chnoic]

Ironically, Steve Mascords book paints a slightly different picture.

Nah, you can debate a lot in the SL War, but you cant debate that the licencing was a major f*ck up by the ARL that would have shut the whole thing down immediately.

They were so confident that no one would think of leaving, that they refused to lock anyone in and treated most clubs like shit. Then they were surprised when clubs decided to leave.

Alternatives history:
- ARL signs all priority teams (all non-sydney teams and the 3/4 Sydney clubs they absolutely wanted to keep) to 10 year licences.
- the other get 1 year licences in a Battle Royale contest until they collapse/merge/outlive the opponent.

When SL turns up to start stealing clubs/players, they have their pick of the shit Sydney clubs the ARL didnt want (good luck to them with that…). War ends before it begins and they head the the negotiating table to pay god knows how much to the ARL.

It is undeniable that ARL f*cked up massively and let the wolves in the door.

 

[Perth Red]

So wait the story isn’t the arl imposed travel costs at the last minute the club always knew about it

It’s they added the travel costs of one extra team and that extra 50k would’ve sent the club broke so they had to go to super league

Yep, and it was a lot more than $50k. A return flight to Sydney was around $1k back then. That’s $20k every week for a whole season extra out the budget. A lot of money back then. No wonder they bailed after being set up to fail. Hopefully vlad isnt setting us up again.

 

[Perth Red]

Interesting. Considering you didn’t even live in Australia when the Western Reds were conceived or played in the ARL as by your own admission you only got into them when they were already in Super League correct? Your words straight from the interview you were on.

By the time you did get into Perth Reds majority of their original administration during Western Reds days had already left and they had new management for SL.

I’m not having a crack at you or anything but there is a considerable amount of information you wouldn’t have any access to, as again by your own admission you weren’t even around to be able to access it and if you did by chance have access to the information years later you’d only know half the story as discussed to you by whoever was involved with Reds at the time.

I just doubt a fresh off the plane bloke from Hull gets immediate contacts from people involved in WARL or Western Reds franchise. I’d assume it would have been years if not a decade or so later at a minimum. Apologies if I’m wrong here.

I learnt what happened from someone who was on the reds board before news ltd took over. We looked after his wife in our care services and I spent many a coffee listening to some great stories from back then and insider info on what happened. no reason to not believe what he told me.

 

[Wb1234]

Yep, and it was a lot more than $50k. A return flight to Sydney was around $1k back then. That’s $20k every week for a whole season extra out the budget. A lot of money back then. No wonder they bailed after being set up to fail. Hopefully vlad isnt setting us up again.

So if the arl has excluded Perth and just added the 3 teams as budgeted everything would’ve been ok ?

Your story doesn’t add anyway they were only going to add two teams not three

 

[Perth Red]

So if the arl has excluded Perth and just added the 3 teams as budgeted everything would’ve been ok ?

Your story doesn’t add anyway they were only going to add two teams not three

they didn’t plan to introduce 3 teams? The extra unbudgeted costs to reds and nq came from the Introduction of an extra side competition which reds and nq had to also find the money to cover transport for at the 12th hour.

ARL couldn’t afford their ambitions, nq were saddled with the same costs which also drove them Into news ltd arms.

it’s clear the arl was more ambitious than smart and didnt have the funds to expand the company so aggressively. They left themselves wide open to a take over.

introducing perth and Auckland would have been the sensible move if they had truly national ambitions.

 

[Wb1234]

they didn’t plan to introduce 3 teams? The extra unbudgeted costs to reds and nq came from the Introduction of an extra side competition which reds and nq had to also find the money to cover transport for at the 12th hour.

ARL couldn’t afford their ambitions, nq were saddled with the same costs which also drove them Into news ltd arms.

it’s clear the arl was more ambitious than smart and didnt have the funds to expand the company so aggressively. They left themselves wide open to a take over.

introducing perth and Auckland would have been the sensible move if they had truly national ambitions.

I love reading bs posts like this

You should become a fiction writer you would be great at it

Rewriting of history to justify a selfish decision to go to news ltd

Literally in the comp for 4 weeks before deciding to betray the arl

 

[Perth Red]

Geez the trolls are taking over, bring back donkey, he seemed valuable contributor compared to the numpties currently infecting this forum!

 

[Vlad59]

Geez the trolls are taking over, bring back donkey, he seemed valuable contributor compared to the numpties currently infecting this forum!

I miss him

 

[SirPies&Beers]

Geez the trolls are taking over, bring back donkey, he seemed valuable contributor compared to the numpties currently infecting this forum!

you can always add more fairy tales and try pass them off as news?

I see all the posts got deleted. all started from @AlwaysGreen obsession with red bears and went off the rails from there.

is there one targeted player west aussies bears should aim to get if they kick off in 2027?

 

[Centy Coast]

 

[Vlad59]

View attachment 97949

To you too mate

 

[Bukowski]

you can always add more fairy tales and try pass them off as news?

I see all the posts got deleted. all started from @AlwaysGreen obsession with red bears and went off the rails from there.

is there one targeted player west aussies bears should aim to get if they kick off in 2027?

Any of yours deleted?

 

[Det.Wojciehowicz]

Any of yours deleted?

Is the Pope Catholic?

 

[mongoose]

you can always add more fairy tales and try pass them off as news?

I see all the posts got deleted. all started from @AlwaysGreen obsession with red bears and went off the rails from there.

is there one targeted player west aussies bears should aim to get if they kick off in 2027?

Ponga, I think he was born in WA... even though he played his junior League and Union in QLD and NZ

 

[BuffaloRules]

If they are coping that much flak for $6mill afl spending imagine it for rugby league when they announce $500million lol

Wouldn’t they know by now that it’s likely to happen ? Why aren’t they crying about it now?

 

[BuffaloRules]

I read that it was actually super league that made reds pay for the opposition teams flights and not arl. meaning they defected right after they were accepted into the comp and didn’t understand what they were defecting too.

One of the biggest ( there have been a few ) myths that Perth Red has perpetuated repeatedly over his 20 years in this forum , Is that the ARL made the Reds pay the away flight costs, and this led to financial burdens that put them out of the comp…

The realities are that Perth themselves offered to pay the travel costs to secure their admission to the comp… the ARL didn’t force them to do anything ….although admittedly they wouldnt have been given the green light otherwise … but the ARL had other expansion options and it was a surprise when Perth was ultimately included in the expansion

And of course Perth chose to stab the ARL in the back and join Super League before they ever played a game in the competition… so what ever financial arrangements they had that may have actually contributed to their demise was between them and Super League … not the ARL…

Take this from someone living in Australia at the time … not Hull England in those pre internet days of last century ..

 

[SirPies&Beers]

One of the biggest ( there have been a few ) myths that Perth Red has perpetuated repeatedly over his 20 years in this forum , Is that the ARL made the Reds pay the away flight costs, and this led to financial burdens that put them out of the comp…

The realities are that Perth themselves offered to pay the travel costs to secure their admission to the comp… the ARL didn’t force them to do anything ….although admittedly they wouldnt have been given the green light otherwise … but the ARL had other expansion options and it was a surprise when Perth was ultimately included in the expansion

And of course Perth chose to stab the ARL in the back and join Super League before they ever played a game in the competition… so what ever financial arrangements they had that may have actually contributed to their demise was between them and Super League … not the ARL…

Take this from someone living in Australia at the time … not Hull England in those pre internet days of last century ..

that sounds completely plausible and possibly right.

but then again perth reds source is some geezer over coffee dates

 

[BuffaloRules]

that sounds completely plausible and possibly right.

but then again perth reds source is some geezer over coffee dates

Just like his other source right who had all the gossip from the PVL Cook meeting in Sydney a month or so back

 

[Canard]

And of course Perth chose to stab the ARL in the back and join Super League before they ever played a game in the competition… so what ever financial arrangements they had that may have actually contributed to their demise was between them and Super League … not the ARL…

The reality is that for NQ we would have died without the Murdoch cash injection (which also included stadium upgrades).

So I can understand the Reds financial motivation.

4 clubs in 1995, was to much and it ruined the fabric of the competition.

It should have been 2 at most (Warriors and Reds?) and 2 a few seasons later.

 

[BuffaloRules]

The reality is that for NQ we would have died without the Murdoch cash injection (which also included stadium upgrades).

So I can understand the Reds financial motivation.

4 clubs in 1995, was to much and it ruined the fabric of the competition.

It should have been 2 at most (Warriors and Reds?) and 2 a few seasons later.

I’m sure you are probably aware that the original plan was only to bring in 2 sides …the Warriors were already guaranteed a spot, and there was only supposed to be 1 of the other three admitted …I would probably suggest that the Crushers were the favourites …. It was a major surprise when they announced all three teams to join the competition…

It was perhaps an over reach ..but we don’t really know how things would have turned out… the game was flying at the time but SL happened before they had a chance to properly consolidate the new teams