How about the Bears taking over Manly?

Oh Dear One Eyed Bear. The Bears won 9 wooden spoons. If that's considered 'rarely' then the Bears are currently where they deserve to be.

The licence was always Manly's because they weren't ever thrown out. The Bears were the ones that were given a year or so to sort out their business or lose their licence. They didn't sort their business at all, so they lost their licence & were thrown out of the comp. The Bears actually became the only club in the history of Rugby League to commit the sin of not paying their players twice. Manly actually paid the Bears players that came to the Northern Eagles their last years Bears salary. The Northern Eagles was nothing but a full shotgun wedding. Neither the Bears or Manly wanted any part of it. Manly were understandably furious at having done everything the NRL asked of them, but told they HAD to merge or else. There was nothing good natured, open hearted or idealistic about the Bears then at all. On the other hand Manly paid Bears players. It was actually Manly that showed the only good grace in the whole fiasco.

That's actually not correct at all. Bozo is an outcast at Manly. He's been a very naughty boy & Manly have basically run him outta town.

The Bears have been telling complete fiction stories since day one. Last time it was full steam ahead being the next team in the comp. That didn't happen. Now their next fairytale is replacing Manly? The NRL already stated repeatedly that North Sydney Oval doesn't meet the requirements of the NRL, so unless that's changed dramatically, it's just another make believe story. And living on the Central Coast, the NRL already know that the Bears are outcasts here & will never be supported by anyone other than current Bears supporters. The Central Coast Bears will never ever exist.

As usual you show your usual distorted hatred for Manly Rugby League. Get your figures right though. The Manly Warringah district has last recorded population of 270,000. Eastern Suburbs has 267000, Cronulla Sutherland 225.000 and even Canterbury Bankstown, one of the biggest clubs has only 340,000. So that argument is useless. As far as crowds are concerned Manly has been at the bottom of the comp and that's why their crowds are down (as well as the poor capacity of the ground). To show this in perspective Parramatta, one of the biggest crowd drawers only averaged 10,900 in 2013 and most recent years have been around 12,000. I've no problem about Manly playing some games at North Sydney (good looking ground, but a capacity less than Lottoland, or Bluetongue, also with less capacity than Lottoland (check the figures). But that doesnt mean disbanding the Sea Eagles. You want the Bears,, try fighting more seriously with the NRL like Souths did instead of falling in a heap and blaming others.

This debate has thrown light on the fact that the local Manly district is to small to support an NRL franchise with only 265k people. The district is to weak to support an NRL franchise so they now bus kids in from Blacktown where they have their reserve grade. They have no money as their Leagues club was just sold from under them. The ground they play at is council owned and will never be upgraded as it has been completely written off the books as an asset. There is no transport into the area nor is there any interest in the area (crowds at Lottoland have consistently been falling for the last 40 years). The Penns though have shown this franchise where their future lies by taking at least 1 game every year to Brisbane. Bearfax makes a lot of sense when he says both clubs should still exist side by side. Both clubs should play 2 games per year at their traditional home grounds of North Sydney & Lottoland whilst then the Bears play their remainder on the Central Coast and of coarse Manly (combining with Manly Whynum) could survive if it were to play it's remaining matches in Brisbane. By doing this both clubs expand and hold onto their heartlands and Rugby League expands massively so nobody loses.

Sammy I am not sure I understand your comment the the Northern Beaches & Northshore are one geographic area as this morning it took me 2 hours to get from Hornsby to Brookvale, yesterday morning on the other hand it took me 45 minutes from Hornsby to Gosford the previous morning. The fact is that there is also a train line connecting the Northshore to the Central Coast. When soccer looked to expand it's market from the Central Coast it took 3 games to it's natural closest market North Sydney. The issue Manly has is it's isolated and 265k people is not enough to support an NRL franchise.

Sydney’s north shore needs a RL side in the NRL, simple.. A huge area that spreads from north Sydney to Willoughby to Hornsby to north Ryde and the hills district.. And that side is north Sydney bears. Northern beaches is to small the bears cover larger territory and Manly fans won’t travel to Allianz when most likely manly relocate there if they survive being cut from the nrl.. Rugby league fans on the north shore want an nrl team and it’s a wealthy area.. Eastwood is relocating in rugby union and Gordon is struggling in the Shute shield, so the north shore need rugby league, Asquith juniors is big junior pool.. afl and soccer have not taken over the north shore .

Teams I dislike? Where did that come from? No. I selected - as clearly stated - on a number-of-fans basis (just a cursory look at crowd numbers points you in the right direction...). And if you actually read the comment, which it didn't seem like you did, I specifically said that the Bears (in Sydney or the Coast) would not be a good idea. In my view, if you were getting rid of a team (not my favoured option), those two look like the most viable options - static populations in the local regions with little chance of that changing (they're already built-out), low crowd numbers. But ideally if you were bringing in new teams it would be as part of an expansion to an 18 team competition. Next time maybe try a little more comprehension with your reading, yeah?

Teams I dislike? Where did that come from? No. I selected - as clearly stated - on a number-of-fans basis (just a cursory look at crowd numbers points you in the right direction...). And if you actually read the comment, which it didn't seem like you did, I specifically said that the Bears (in Sydney or the Coast) would not be a good idea. In my view, if you were getting rid of a team (not my favoured option), those two look like the most viable options - static populations in the local regions with little chance of that changing (they're already built-out), low crowd numbers. But ideally if you were bringing in new teams it would be as part of an expansion to an 18 team competition. Next time maybe try a little more comprehension with your reading, yeah?

100% correct

Obviously yes............

You make the point that a presence should be kept in the north of Sydney. The Central Coast is not in the north of Sydney and getting from North Sydney or Manly to Gosford is about as long as them getting to the shire. You can't have everything in this league, if they make a Central Coast team, just shut down a team to do it and cut out all the relocation nonsense. The Bears already proved once the won't make the commute.

Those 2 teams from Sydney you've selected also happen to be the 2 most successful Sydney teams for the last decade. Getting rid of teams you dislike, as most dislike Manly, won't make the comp better, just more boring, especially if you replaced them with the Bears.

@ Birdy. Yeah I agree with Jaws too. I followed The Bears from the very first time i got interested in the Winfield cup and followed the Warriors as only my 2nd team but then they turned on the ARL that admitted them to the comp in the first place and I have never forgotten it. However it still wasn't a 2 team fight back. The only reason you give Manly the credit is because Ken Arthurson was both the Manly and ARL chairman if my memory serves? The Bears were casualties because they were ahead of their time and financed the build of the stadium at Gosford that they never got the sole benefit of.

I notice the Titans are no longer an option so you guys are looking elsewhere.

Look guys. This is all hypothetic nonsense, possibly grabbed from speculative thinking on the SeaEagles forum, Silvertails.. Even if the Penns were to sell the Manly franchise, which they are adament is not going to happen, there are two overseas consortiums who are waiting in line to take over Manly and they are far wealthier than the Norths group. Its a rumour guys . Another of those rumours about the Bears taking over this location and then that. Though I dont doubt Manly's nemesis Greenberg, would love nothing more than to see Manly collapse, He's finding its beginning to flow back at him. Sorry Bears supporters. Look elsewhere Check the journio who started the rumour David. That should have told you.

Obviously not.

Big Bear Shopping Centre still exists

I think your facts are a little one sided there bearfax. 1 - “The problem here Johnno is that Bear’s supporters consistently want to get rid of Manly, when realistically they should just be trying to create a new Bear area”. The only thing the bears have been trying to do for the last 20+ years is create their own area. Bears supporters of course hate manly but This is the first time I’ve ever seen that an inclusion could be at Manlys expense. 2 - I also wouldn’t get too high on that horse regarding Manlys super league position. Apparently when Norths and Manly were approached to join super league, FOX wanted a combined North side entity from the outset. His preference wasn’t for Bears or Manly individually. Also if we want to bring in other facts, when manly were being proposed as a club. Norths voted In favour of the team being created, despite it meaning they’d lose a big chunk of their grass roots and grade players. Now THAT is selfless