You mean the One New Zealand Warriors, from the small New Zealand town of One?
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Monday Night Footy for the Bears would be incredible. Crowd numbers will be so small that scientists will need to invent a new number to represent it.
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The extra match doesn’t have to be played on Monday nights. If it is a Perth Bears home match, it can be played on Friday night, Saturday night or even Sunday night, as part of a tripleheader. Obviously it will be shown into eastern states in late night, but it will deliver a genuine primetime match for rugby league fans in Perth, given the AFL night match starts at either 5.30pm or 6.10pm there.
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That’s a bit harsh, the Western Reds got 20k crowds in their day at home.
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Great game to finish Magic Round, with the Raiders upsetting the Storm 20-18, with a penalty goal at the end of the first Golden Point period. Canberra came back from 12-0 down in the first half.
Probably the best game I’ve seen this year so far.
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Currently watching the Huddersfield vs Hull match on Fox League now and Liam Knight (the fiance of Today sports presenter Danika Mason) has been sent off for a shoulder charge.
EDIT: It’s also Magic Weekend in the Super League this weekend, and they used an instrumental of Little Mix’s 2015 hit “Black Magic” as outro music going to the ad break.
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Done deal: NRL’s $85 million Bears reveal in WA
News Corp papers
The deal is done: ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo and WA premier Roger Cook reach agreement for Perth Bears to enter the NRL in 2027.
This masthead can reveal the ARL Commission has formally struck an $85 million deal with the West Australian government for the Perth Bears to become the NRL’s 18th team.
Work will also commence on a $200 million-plus upgrade of HBF Stadium as part of the NRL’s desire for the ground to be Perth’s version of Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium.
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Making the announcement on social media, Premier Cook revealed the state government would spend $65 million on the club, which could play its first game in 2027 or 2028, over the next seven years.
That includes $60 million in direct funding to the new team, and a further $5 million in match-day support and marketing.
An official announcement had been expected on Thursday after months of negotiations, which had stalled earlier this year.
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Is there any reason they couldn’t revive the Western Reds as a team and brand? Id prefer that to the North Sydney Bears being reused.
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Much prefer the WA Reds, the Bears are so desperate to still be relevant in the NRL in 2025.
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This morning’s announcement was basically shunned by The West Australian. There was no mention of the new team on the homepages of the paper or its sister site Perthnow, and you need to go deep into the sport section of Perthnow to find an AAP report about it.
Nine-owned WAToday includes a link to an opinion piece on the homepage.
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Not shunned but by the looks of it, not written in a positive light at all.
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With the NRL to become an eighteen-team competition, this has me thinking how a typical round of footy would be structured, assuming there’ll be no byes in a round:
One Thursday night game starting at 7:50pm (or 5:50pm if played in Perth)
Two Friday night games, one starting at 6:00pm and the other at 7:50pm (5:50pm AWST)
Three Saturday games, one in the afternoon starting at 3:00pm (1:00pm AWST), the twilight game starting at 5:30pm (3:30pm AWST) and the evening game starting at 7:30pm (5:30pm AWST)
Basically, the Thu-Sat schedule remains the same.
From that point on, Sundays can be a triple header (with the matches starting at 1:45pm, 4:05pm and 6:15pm) or the current Sunday format (2:00pm and 4:05pm) can remain as is, with Monday night football returning.
When the AFL expanded to 18 teams with the entry of the GWS Giants, a new Saturday twilight match was introduced in between the two afternoon matches (simultaneous, with Seven Melbourne airing one match on a 90-minute delay) and two evening matches that were played simultaneously (again, with Seven Melbourne airing one of them live).
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My suggestion will have no Monday night football at all.
Thursday night: one game starting at 7:50pm AEST (no games in Perth)
Friday night: one starting at 6:00pm and the other at 7:50pm. It can then be followed by a third game in Perth starting at 9.50pm AEST (7.50pm AWST)
Saturday: one in the afternoon starting at 3:00pm (1:00pm AWST), the twilight game starting at 5:30pm (3:30pm AWST) and the evening game starting at 7:30pm (5:30pm AWST). It can then be followed by a fourth game in Perth at 9.30pm (7.30pm AWST).
Sunday as mentioned above.
Basically, the Perth Bears home games should be played in the afternoon or night, local time, similar to Perth Glory home games in A-League Men.
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I also think the Perth Bears should look into hosting at least one game a season at Optus Stadium, possibly when both the WA AFL clubs are away for Gather Round (2026 is the final year of the contract with the SA Government for that event; where it’ll be held afterwards is still up in the air though I have a feeling it’ll remain in Adelaide).
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It is great to have the Western Perth Reds (Bears) back in the NRL. It was long overdue.
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It ultimately depends on whether they are prepared to have fixture overlaps. They used to, most sporting leagues in the world do but they’ve shied away from it in the last decade.
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According to the West Australian, any type of football that is not the AFL = Bad. The Bears will have very little effect on your currently 0-8 West Coast Eagles or the Freo Dockers. They will still attract huge crowds Bears or no Bears much like they survived with the Perth Glory in the A-League and the Western Force in Super Rugby.
Speaking of the Bears, I would open the 2027 season with Bears vs Sea Eagles to reignite an old rivalry.
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