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Like the nerdy girl you used to tease in high school biology class that later became the stunner whom stoically refuses to accept your belated Facebook friend request, the city of Perth has overnight become rugby league’s object of affection.
And by overnight, I of course mean the last decade or so.
To say that the task of bringing a professional rugby league side back to Western Australia has been a hard slog is a bit like saying Greg Inglis is well on his way to cementing his spot as the Rabbitohs fullback.
The demise of the West’s previous club the Western/Perth Reds is well documented, and the mistakes made by the Reds themselves and the game’s various administrations is the best example of how to run a sporting organisation with great potential into the ground that does not involve Jeff Muller.
Ridiculous travel financing, boardroom skulduggery, Adrian Barich… all that really matters was that after promising the world Perth’s new housemate rugby league failed to pay the rent, drank the last of the milk and spewed in the front garden as it waited for a cab to Melbourne.
In all fairness, West Australians had good reason to not want rugby league to darken its doorstep, for unlike some other shoddily slapped together clubs of the time the Perth one had by far the most promise.
For years West Australia had been the third best rugby league state, and the Reds side managed to be competitive from the get go in a congested competition.
But then, well, best to not mention the war.
Since then rugby league has done the hard slog getting rugby league solid in Victoria, and has slowly been warming to another crack at the other side of the Nullarbor with occasional NRL matches.
But whilst WARL have been politely waving from across the quadrangle for a while now, last night though was the moment where the West Australian bid sashayed down the spiral staircase and the NRL’s jaw dropped, barely able to utter a breathless “hubba hubba!”
What had they done with that gawky looking ground with scaffold seating and giant puddles, and when had they replaced her with this sexy, shiny grown-up stadium?
Ok so maybe that’s a bit dramatic, after all the Western Force (who the NRL should be sending a nice big fruit basket to) have made a good fist of the new amenities with respectable crowds for a while now, but last night that ‘swooshing’ sound you kept hearing was the final ‘tick’ for a WA NRL team happening with nib Stadium’s extreme makeover.
Sure it helped that the game between the Rabbitohs and Warriors overnight in WA was a cracker, and George Burgess had sent out his own flyers on social media, but now it’s pretty damn clear to all that any more delays to the Western bid by the NRL is probably due to the fact that David Smith and co are standing around in a boardroom somewhere thinking how they can get over a possible bye round with an odd number of teams.
So come on NRL, time to gather up the courage and ask the West Coast Pirates to dance.
No one is saying it will be easy,hey true love never is, but after making eyes across the room all night there’s a few million of us rugby league wingmen elbowing you in the ribs and we’re all telling you to “go for it man!”
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