It is official, the Perth Bears will be the 18th team in the NRL competition, starting in 2027. Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) Chairman Peter V'landys and National Rugby League (NRL) CEO Andrew Abdo flew all the way to Perth to make the announcement.
"Western Australians love sport and now they have the opportunity to get behind a Perth-based rugby league club that will capture the hearts and minds of fans across the country," V'landys said.
"As a foundation club, the Bears have a rich history in the game, and automatically provide hundreds of thousands of East Coast supporters for the Perth based team."
The Western Australia Government had spilt the beans a little early, with Premier Roger Cook revealing on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached with the ARLC to partially fund the team.
"We've secured a new W.A. NRL club for Western Australia!" Cook enthused. "This is a great day for sports fans and a great day for the W.A. economy.
"Perth will now join Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne as cities that host both NRL and AFL sides, and I'd back us to compete just as hard at NRL as we do at AFL.
"So, now let's get behind our new NRL side as we put the 'national' in NRL!"
A new team for Western Australia had been on the cards for some time, but the financial details had been a sticking point as the NRL and state government argued over how much taxpayer funding the venture required.
The Perth Bears are expected to play most of their home games at HBF Park, the 30,000-capacity rectangular stadium currently used by the Perth Roar (A League) and Western Force (Super Rugby Pacific). The stadium is due to receive an upgrade worth up to $200 million.
All the club needs now is, well, everything else.
They will need a board, front office staff, a head coach, coaching staff, support staff, a jersey design; oh, and a 30-man squad of first grade quality players to fill those jerseys.
North Sydney Bears, currently playing in the NSW Cup, have an agreement with Melbourne Storm to act as a feeder club. That agreement finishes at the end of 2025. The lower grade system for the new Bears will have to be determined. The distance between Sydney and Perth will play an enormous role in determining how a squad of 30 players are kept match fit, while also developing the talent outside of that squad.
The distance has always been an issue with teams based in WA. Even the AFL has experienced difficulties in luring players to its two W.A. clubs, with many players siting the burden of spending so many hours in the air. With Papua New Guinea already confirmed for the 2028 season, the footprint of the competition will become quite enormous. A flight from Sydney to Port Moresby takes roughly four hours, while the flight to Perth is a full hour longer. Those trips make the three-hour hop to Auckland look relatively easy.
Everyone has been worried about PNG's chances of signing a NRL-quality squad in time for a 2028 kick-off. Now we have the Perth side needing to field their side a year earlier. Of course it is not just a matter of which players will sign, there is a very real concern that there might not be an extra 60 NRL-grade quality players to go around.
Former Eels coach Brad Arthur has put his hand up for the coaching job, an appointment which is yet to be confirmed. He, or whoever takes on the role, is going to need some very experienced, very savvy recruiters on his team. The challenge being to sign up enough big names to make the team both instantly competitive and attractive to fans, balanced with enough honest toilers to keep the payroll under the salary cap.
The following is a 17-man squad of players that will be available to sign with the Bears, whether they are willing to take the plunge and accept a reasonable salary is the big question. Anyone expecting to be heavily compensated for the inconvenience of moving to Perth, might be in for a shock. The Bears will play under the same salary cap as everyone else.
Potential 2027 Perth Bears
1. Ryan Papenhuyzen, 2. Sam Stonestreet, 3. Mark Nawaqanitawase, 4. Jesse Ramien, 5. Murray Taulagi, 6. Lachlan Galvin, 7. Jamie Humphreys, 8. Jack Todd, 9. Blayke Brailey, 10. Lindsay Smith, 11. Angus Crichton, 12. Beau Fermor, 13. Cameron McInnes BENCH: 14. Bailey Hayward, 15. Toby Rudolf, 16. Jaimin Jolliffe, 17. Shawn Blore
The question remaining is; have the NRL allowed the Perth club enough time to be ready for the 2027 season? The Dolphins were announced as the 17th club in October 2021, and they joined the 2023 competition, but they were already well set up. The Dolphins had their front office staff, facilities and an operational feeder system coming through their long-established Queensland Cup team. Playing out of Brisbane and Redcliffe was also a lot more alluring for new signings.
Queensland Rugby League boss Ben Ikin warned fans of the enormous task ahead.
"Do not underestimate the size of the challenge they've got in front of them," Ikin told Triple M.
"You know if you talk to anyone at the Dolphins and about how difficult it was to get them ready for the NRL and they had all the infrastructure and people in place pretty much.
"This thing is going to be new from the board down and it's across the other side of the country, so there's a whole lot of things that need that need to happen between now and that first game for this franchise to be everything that it can be."
Regardless of the doubts, and the challenges, we will see the Bears run out to play in 2027. Old Bears fans can throw on their jerseys again, Perth rugby league fans will have a team to support, and most importantly the league will have an extra game each week to sell to potential broadcasters.