- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I will clarify one thing before starting: I was no North Sydney Bears fan – admittedly I was barely old enough to remember them in the NRL at all.
When a good thing pokes its head up, though, you’re mad if you don’t grab it.
After the Bears were ‘kicked out’ of the competition at the end of the 1999 season and forced to merge with the Manly Sea Eagles, traditionalists everywhere were forced to hang their heads over a foundation club, steeped in history, amalgamating with their fiercest rival.
The merger was a failure from the get go. The Northern Eagles just never worked – and never looked like working.
As the Sea Eagles worked the finances back to a level strong enough to sustain a stand alone team in the top flight, North Sydney dissolved into history. From that moment, however, noises began to be made, and every year the racket would grow a little louder.
While maintaining a presence in junior rep competitions as well as reserve grade, powerful figures over the past 15 years have been going about their business to try and bring the Bears back into the limelight.
The early idea was that, if funds became available, the Bears would attempt to return in their purest form back at the glorious North Sydney Oval; back where they belong.
As the nature of the competition changed, however, and expansion was decided as the way forward, that idea became a pipe dream.
Enter the Central Coast Bears.
The idea made – and still makes – perfect sense. The Central Coast is a region with genuine junior catchments, an NRL-standard stadium that’s barely used and a population screaming for a team to call their own.
For one reason or another, though, the NRL wasn’t convinced. In 2007 the Gold Coast Titans entered the competition.
(Image: AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
For ten years now the Titans have lumbered along somewhat lethargically. While crowds and membership levels have never hit crisis point, one feels the people up that way are yet to fully embrace their team, and if you try and claim that it’s due to the fact they’re only a decade old, look at the Western Sydney Wanderers.
Admittedly success hasn’t been forthcoming for the Gold Coast Titans, and this is likely to have something to do with it. The closest they came to a title was back in 2010 when they were bundled out in the preliminary final by the Sydney Roosters. They’d wait six more years to feature in the finals again.
The NRL seem to be obsessed with the idea of making it work on the sunshine strip. They continued to turn a blind eye to the financial struggles of the Titans until it reached a point where they were forced to buy the club just to keep it afloat.
This is genuinely concerning given the Titans, as we all know, are the fourth rugby league entity to call the Gold Coast home.
So when something doesn’t seem to be working, you’ve got two options.
If the game is hellbent on having a base on the Gold Coast, option two is all they’ve got.
Enter the Gold Coast Bears.
On Thursday Brent Read from the Australian spoke about a powerful consortium looking to buy the Titans from the NRL and rebrand them as the Gold Coast Bears. They’ll wear red and black and play one game a year at North Sydney Oval. This, again, makes perfect sense.
Not only will the fans on the Gold Coast still have a team to love, the team itself will immediately obtain an entirely new fanbase in another state. While their fans south of the Tweed won’t have a great deal of access to ‘home games’, you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll be all over their team when they travel to Sydney to play.
From this the Bears will have two major rivals in two different states: Brisbane in Queensland and Manly in New South Wales. For people who think that’s baloney, go ask an old Norths fan what they think of the Sea Eagles. Good luck getting out of the conversation before dark.
The takeover would also give rugby league on the Gold Coast something it’s never had: history.
While Bears fans didn’t march the streets like South Sydney supporters did back in the early 2000s, they’re some of the most passionate people you’ll ever meet. Drive anywhere around Sydney on any day and I’d be comfortable betting that somewhere you’ll see a bumper sticker that reads ‘Bring Back the Bears’.
I’m no financial expert and I’m not privy to the intricacies or processes of buying and selling an NRL club. The Gold Coast Bears though? It’ll just work.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.