What are everyone's thoughts on Norths joining in with the pacific to form the Pacific Bears? I think it is fine, you get a following in North Sydney and Central Coast then you have Islander support automatically. I think Wellington is more suited to a Pasifika team, as it is closer to the pacific Islands. It would be nice to see the Bears back, though i think they should base themselves out of Central Coast, Stadium already there and backing of Central Coast and Wyong Leagues.
Perth Bears and Southern Orcas would be my preferred, but Pacific Bears is better than PNG. However, the Brisbane Tigers have joined in with PNG which makes it more realistic and better in my opinon, Brisbane Hunters.
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The NRL and Govt should simply invest in a pathways program that runs through the elite performance centres of Sydney and Qld, maybe use the Tigers and Broncos facilities.
There is absolutely no need for standalone Pacific based clubs BEFORE there is some consistency coming through the player market at all positions.
They could bolster the relationship between our nation and its neighbors in the short term with a team, but hurt them in the longterm if the experiment fails.
The forwards of PNG and the Backs of Fiji can continue to flow through into the pathways program and the NRL could even spin off a mid season draft out of that.
It's a good idea if executed well, with significantly less risk but all the rewards you could hope for.
Nope.
No bears in the pacific lol
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North Sydney will never get back into the NRL. I have always been a big pusher in them returning as they were majorly screwed over by the NRL with the controversial criteria back in the late 1990s. The problem for them is they should have won the bid in 2007 for the Central Coast but somehow the NRL gave the licence to the Gold Coast despite them having four previous teams which all failed. Since then, their management have never had a concrete idea about how to get back in, they have proposed taking over the Gold Coast licence, then they said Perth would be an option, they dropped that and decided to become a regional NSW team, that didn't last long, then it were back to Perth and now they have dropped that and it's about being a pacific Island team. It's all over the place with what they want.
There ain't a lot of bears in the Pacific so I think the emblem is wrong. No-one besides 1000yo North Sydney fans will support that.
The NSRLFC can back it but it can't be known as the Bears. They're better off remaining in NSW Cup as the Bears and having a pathway for the NRL team.
No, no, no, no and no. The NRL will lose my support if it proceeds to have more international teams, and we don't need another multi-located team with no identity.
It's not the IRL, it's the NRL. An Australian competition. The Warriors have won nothing in their entire existence. And don't get me started on the government's involvement in wanting a PNG team. V'Landys allowing the NRL to be used as a pawn to combat China is disgraceful imo.
I have no issue with the Bears coming back if they are located in Australia. Perth would be the most suitable location.
The future of the NRL talent is in the pacific islands. We need to address that area, as well as central QLD and Perth.
Then provide pathways for the pacific islander players to play for clubs established, and based in Australia. There is no need to have another team based overseas.
Otherwise, we might as well just get rid of international rugby league, blow up the NRL and start again with a mix of state based and international teams. It didn't work for Super Rugby, which is now a basketcase of a competition.
If nrl want png to move forward, they should make all nrl clubs have 1 png minimum player in their top 30 squad... as for next club, perth bears makes sense...
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