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It seems every week a new NRL expansion rumour is unearthed.
Wellington revealed their ambitious bid last week, calling themselves the South Pacific Cyclones with home games shared by Wellington and Fiji.
The Fijians have a passionate fan-base and have participated in the World Sevens and made the semi-finals of the 2008 World Cup. Papua New Guinea’s successful entry into the Queensland Cup proves expanding the NRL beyond Australia and New Zealand has potential.
Closer to home, the Central Coast Bears keep putting their hands up for readmission.
The North Sydney Bears were one of NSWRL’s foundation clubs back in 1908. The Bears won two premierships, in 1921 and 1922, and nothing else for the next 77 years. They made the ‘premiership final’ in 1943 in the days before mandatory grand finals, losing to Newtown. They were competitive in the 1990s, but never made it past the preliminary final.
The Bears were victims of the Super League war. Staying loyal to the ARL, they were squeezed out upon reunification and merged with Manly. A powerhouse team of the nineties, the Sea Eagles dominated the Northern Eagles, dividing home games between Brookvale Oval and Gosford (instead of North Sydney Oval).
The Eagles played three seasons (2000-2002) but never made the finals.
Manly were reinstated for the 2003 NRL season and the Bears were relegated to the NSW Cup. The Bears played Parramatta in the 2007 NSWRL Premier League grand final, narrowly losing. With the NSW Cup and Queensland Cup used as pipelines to the NRL, the Bears are the current Souths feeder club, following affiliations with the New Zealand Warriors and Melbourne.
Veteran Bear Greg Florimo is CEO of the rebooted Central Coast Bears and a vocal supporter of their readmission. The Bears have corporate backing from Central Coast and North Shore businesses, an established stadium in Bluetongue and have links with local junior clubs and schools with 23 junior clubs in their catchment area.
Considering the local connections, surely Gosford will forget the Northern Eagles nightmare and embrace the Bears as their team?
If the Bears return, the romanticism of the concept – the grand old Bears are back – will be milked by every media outlet in the country. Nine will have a field day, feeding off 90 years of history. The rivalry with Manly will immediately be resumed and – more importantly – the old North Sydney fans will pull out their faded Bears jumpers and flock back to the footy, especially when the Bears play in Sydney.
What if the Bears’ entry – as the 11th NSW NRL team – came at the expense of the weaker Sydney clubs? When the Hunter Mariners folded after Super League, their best players joined the Melbourne Storm.
The Bears could play a similar role, absorbing the stars from poorly performed Sydney teams. In turn this would force struggling clubs to improve or die, which could strengthen the competition, by increasing the amount of competitive teams or dropping the deadweight.
There’s no doubt the Bears have a strong case for an NRL return. They have an established home ground, a healthy junior system, a presence in the NSW Cup and retain the traditional North Sydney links.
The Bears have plenty of expansion competition, with the Brisbane Bombers and West Coast Pirates (Perth) the favourites. Brisbane deserves a second team to compete with the Broncos and provide weekly NRL games at Suncorp Stadium, while Perth needs to be revisited for a more credible national competition.
The South Pacific Cyclones are worth a serious look, at least to strengthen the game in New Zealand and Fiji.
Have the Bears done enough to beat the Bombers, Pirates and Cyclones? We’ll have to wait and see.
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