Veteran coaches Wayne Bennett and Trent Robinson have welcomed reports that the Bears are set to join the competition in 2027 and declared being “bold” with player recruitment in particular would be key to any success.
The Bears are set to become the 18th team as long as rival clubs sign off on it, with the club to have less than two years to assemble a squad that will need to be competitive from the outset.
The Dolphins were the latest team to join the NRL in 2023, with the announcement made on October 13, 2021 that they had won the race to become the newest franchise.
That left them with a little bit more time to build a squad, with a couple of veteran signings from the Storm and the key signature of Bennett proving crucial for the growth of an already established club.
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“There are a lot of struggles, but the quality of players is the key thing,” Bennett said on Thursday, with Storm coach Craig Bellamy all but ruling himself out of the job.
“The better the playing group you have together, the quicker things fall in place for you. That’ll be the challenge for them.
“I think it’s great, and I’ve been very supportive of the Western Australia bid.
“We’ll never have a more favourable climate in Western Australia. The premier over there is a great supporter of rugby league, full stop.
“It’s a very strong Australian rules part of the world, so to have the premier of the state behind the bid and wanting the bid is pretty important to us.”
Robinson backed Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys for his willingness to take big risks, with the Roosters coach also having to look internally now that another club can start going after his players from November 1.
“I like Peter and he’s always bullish about timelines,” he said.
“It’s probably much easier when it’s an established club like the Dolphins when they’ve got a club already.
“Building a club from scratch is going to take some work, but be bold.
“It’s doable because they’ve worked out something (financially) with the government, and then the NRL are in a much better financial state than we’ve ever been.
“They just need to make sure that they get the right administrators and coach and senior players. To do that, they’re going to need to do it soon.”
One of the biggest concerns about the two new teams coming in is whether there’s enough talent out there, but Robinson isn’t worried and says people need to start focusing on the future and what the sport looks like in 20 years’ time.
“I always believe in our game,” he said.
“There’s always talk when a new team comes in that there’s not going to be enough players to go around, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think we’ll always have that (depth).
“I always think what our competition is going to look like in 2040. It’s a pretty simple question. Perth will be in, PNG will be in, New Zealand will have another team, possibly Fiji will be on the cards.
“That’s when it’s then about ‘how do we get that done?’
“I don’t think you can plan everything so detailed. Let’s get them in, let’s get the players and create space. We’ve got enough talent and it’ll come through.”
NRL agrees for Bears WA expansion | 01:02
The other big question is whether rugby league can succeed in a state that’s mad about its AFL teams the Fremantle Dockers and the West Coast Eagles.
But the success of the Swans in Sydney proves that rival codes can work in a new market, with Robinson confident that rugby league will thrive over there.
“You respect that they’ve got some really good teams over there and some really good people in the AFL in Perth, but we can coexist,” he declared.
“We’ve got an amazing sport which is different to AFL, and you can support both.
“I think the Sydney Swans have shown that in the reverse. They’re such a strong club and a role model for a lot of other clubs in the AFL.
“We can do that in Perth. We’ve got the game and the product, it’ll then just take management to put that in place.”
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