Trouble going on within the bears - what does this mean for our partnership with them

[NorthChook]

Article explaining what happened: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/nor...18-p57c16.html

But to summarise, Bear's had their AGM meeting the other night and their bitter members voted out their chairman who had been doing some really good things, including networking for most of their major sponsors through his own connections - this had lead to bears legend Billy Moore and James Bracey (channel 9) stepping away out of protest - two others with good connections.

The bears fans (mostly by proxy vote) voted in one of their fanatics/long term fans to the board who used many of these proxy votes to vote the chairman out.

I follow their 'chook pen' like group on facebook and their fans/members are mostly unrealistic very bitter fans who want to be in the NRL immediately and blame their board despite the fact they are doing the best with what they can do - the NRL don't want them back.

From reading the forum and what was said at the AGM - a lot of bears fans (who are also souths fans it seems) hate the roosters and are totally ungrateful for our partnership with them. Many (not all) hate being feeder club to us and for some reason see the partnership in NSW Cup as a move of politis trying to take over the bears which there is no truth to - it was just a good arrangement for both clubs. I read even at the AGM Jason Taylor was forced to defend himself and Trent Robinson about our relationship with the bears. The stupid thing there is little to none gratitude towards our players playing their, giving them a profile (eg Suaalii) and giving them a shot of winning something (for once).

From what this means for our future with them I think is quite questionable - I read in the group the Roosters are quite rightly asking questions. The sad thing for the bears is that their bitter fanatic fans will kill their own club their love (for good) for without NSW Cup and being a feeder club they will be downgraded to Ron Massey Cup or lower, no sponsors, no money, no future.

For us this may mean we need to link with another club or finally enter our own reserve grade side once again - only time will tell but interesting times for that aspect of our club.

My allegiances are 100% behind the Roosters, I grew up a Rooster not a Bear (Bear's were kicked out when I was little). I just grew and currently live on the North Shore, and have family history with the bears so am a fan of them too and I thought the arrangement was a dream to have these two teams together. I of course want pride in RL in my area, and I thought we were on good thing but bitter fans don't allow progress.

Perhaps after all this will be an opportunity for the Roosters to acquire this area depending on their long term future - and the Roosters could have an area all of a sudden from the East, through the whole North Shore to the Central Coast - ironically which was the Bear's dream. We'd need to get in before Manly.

For now I think business is per usual but don't be surprised about any announcement about a change to our feeder season coming sometime this year. I hope they can work things out but doesn't look great - as much as I also love the Bears, their end of this partnership doesn't seem very reliable at the moment.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Thanks for providing all this NC. Im exactly the same as you in terms of my hopes and affiliations....and now possible disappointment!

Fingers crossed for good outcomes for all.

[NorthChook]

Thanks for providing all this NC. Im exactly the same as you in terms of my hopes and affiliations....and now possible disappointment!

Fingers crossed for good outcomes for all.

No worries JFC - I've been really missing watching our up and coming lads run out on a sunny day at NSO and hope this can somehow continue for years to come.

Hopefully this 'shock' can make those at the bears re-evaluate their reality and bring clarity to what is best for their future.

[zac]

yeah, great stuff nc (as usual).
it's sad, cos i thought norths and easts were a good fit. also sad that billy moore and bracey felt they had to walk away. that doesn't sound good at all. sounds like the lunatics are taking over the asylum.
how long is our deal with norths?
is having the fijians as our feeder club an option?
nick needs to get on top of this pretty quickly.

[Tedley]

there is some terrific people at the Bears, but some real arrogant twits. I have a mate that had to walk away after many years working with all levels of the Bears over many years, due to the attitude of some including ex-half backs.
I would predict if the Roosters find a better deal then the Bears will be left alone mainly due to their own importance

[NorthChook]

yeah, great stuff nc (as usual).
it's sad, cos i thought norths and easts were a good fit. also sad that billy moore and bracey felt they had to walk away. that doesn't sound good at all. sounds like the lunatics are taking over the asylum.
how long is our deal with norths?
is having the fijians as our feeder club an option?
nick needs to get on top of this pretty quickly.

Thanks mate - appreciate it!

Our deal ends 2023 (5 year deal from 2019) - will be interesting to see if that lasts. I think Nick will be asking big 'please explains' regarding the current ability of the bears to fulfil their end of the agreement to host our talent. I don't think the jabs at the Roosters will go down too well either.

I think our arrangement with the Silktails may only be for this season (at the moment anyway) the only news I've seen is that they (Silktails) will announce their feeder arrangement soon (https://www.fbcnews.com.fj/sports/ru...der-team-soon/) perhaps for when they are promoted to NSW Cup from hopefully next year. I would imagine their ideal home ground would be eventually in Fiji though which would be hard for our reserves so I would think any NRL team arrangement would be based on using their talent rather than host ours.

Interesting times in terms of our feeder situation - if not the Bears or Silktails I think we would go ourselves as there aren't a lot of other options currently available unless they exist as the 'Central Coast Roosters' like the Women's NSW Cup team

[Jacks Fur Coat]

No worries JFC - I've been really missing watching our up and coming lads run out on a sunny day at NSO and hope this can somehow continue for years to come.

Hopefully this 'shock' can make those at the bears re-evaluate their reality and bring clarity to what is best for their future.

I fear a cutting the nose to spite the face scenario. If we have a divorce they will end up playing Ron Massey Cup tops. The JT linkages to both clubs is partnership gold. Some crazy stuff happens in boardrooms.

[NorthChook]

I fear a cutting the nose to spite the face scenario. If we have a divorce they will end up playing Ron Massey Cup tops. The JT linkages to both clubs is partnership gold. Some crazy stuff happens in boardrooms.

Definitely mate - fingers crossed but not sounding great

[NorthChook]

there is some terrific people at the Bears, but some real arrogant twits. I have a mate that had to walk away after many years working with all levels of the Bears over many years, due to the attitude of some including ex-half backs.
I would predict if the Roosters find a better deal then the Bears will be left alone mainly due to their own importance

Agreed mate, sad for the good bears fans - and I can see that many are upset with what has happened and are down to earth people who just want their team to exist. I guess this is what happens when you have fanatics for a club and they are axed - sad to see.

Bears not left with a great resume to be a feeder club for other teams if we leave them after souths did - which they probably will when they definitely realise they are in no position to 'stand alone' and beg for someone to take them.

[zac]

Thanks mate - appreciate it!

Our deal ends 2023 (5 year deal from 2019) - will be interesting to see if that lasts. I think Nick will be asking big 'please explains' regarding the current ability of the bears to fulfil their end of the agreement to host our talent. I don't think the jabs at the Roosters will go down too well either.

I think our arrangement with the Silktails may only be for this season (at the moment anyway) the only news I've seen is that they (Silktails) will announce their feeder arrangement soon (https://www.fbcnews.com.fj/sports/ru...der-team-soon/) perhaps for when they are promoted to NSW Cup from hopefully next year. I would imagine their ideal home ground would be eventually in Fiji though which would be hard for our reserves so I would think any NRL team arrangement would be based on using their talent rather than host ours.

Interesting times in terms of our feeder situation - if not the Bears or Silktails I think we would go ourselves as there aren't a lot of other options currently available unless they exist as the 'Central Coast Roosters' like the Women's NSW Cup team

yeah, the silktails won't be such an attractive proposition after covid. probably best to try and ride this hiccup. so long as jt is there you'd figure that's realistic.
there must have been a reason we stopped having our own reserves, but if some norths fans want to jump off a cliff maybe we can make a go of it.

[NorthChook]

yeah, the silktails won't be such an attractive proposition after covid. probably best to try and ride this hiccup. so long as jt is there you'd figure that's realistic.
there must have been a reason we stopped having our own reserves, but if some norths fans want to jump off a cliff maybe we can make a go of it.

I think it's just easier to have some else run game-day, logistics with NSWRL, ground, promotion in a new area and new pathway to our club from a different area etc - easy just to give someone else who is a lot more passionate about reserve grade our players to give them a run somewhere. I feel when teams put in their own reserve grades it is a bit half arsed because you can't be more excited about your second best team than your first, so let someone else make it important as their '1sts'.

If we ever do go alone I would like to see them wear a different style jersey to our 1st grade team (like souths do - feel dirty complementing them) to differentiate the teams and keep 1sts special - maybe they can wear our 1908 hoop jersey as their main. I would also like to see them play games both prior to our first grade and also a few games at other grounds in the eastern suburbs - again, if it ever came to that. As I said before 'the Central Coast Roosters' may be more likely as a NSW Cup team to keep that connection and play games up there.

[King Salvo]

The current arrangement will be fulfilled till 2023 - not sure if it will be extended though - Central Coast Roosters to be the name of the Chooks Reggies side in 2024 i predict.

[Kramer]

Love your work NorthChook. Sad really that it has come to this. I enjoyed our relationship with Norths. However, given the recent AGM up there maybe it wouldn't hurt to go back to the Central Coast and base the guys there.

[Tommy Smith]

Awesome post, NorthChook.

Sadly, Rugby League is rightly famed for its bitter backroom shenanigans.

And it's a real shame in this instance because I think the Roosters/Bears partnership makes a lot of sense and should work well.

FWIW, I'd love to see the Bears (Central Coast iteration) merge with the Gold Coast Titans to become the Coastal Bears. Split the games between the GC and Central Coast. It'd give the Titans franchise some desperately needed history and an added fan base. Random idea for the day that'll never happen.

[ism22]

It's an odd club. Getting rid of Perry is just ridiculous as he and his son (who I know) love the club to bits and have done a looot of stuff to promote it. It would take a really farking stupid person to wanna get rid of them unless they have an amazing plan that's gonna dramatically change the organisation.

IMO one of the issues is that they wanna re-join the NRL. Also, a lot of their fans hate the Roosters with a passion. On FB the other week when we had the trial against the Tigpies, people were filthy about how the Bears were wearing Easts jerseys.

We'll see what happens I guess. Lower North Shore is a rich boy's club and I see they re-branded it as a 'Cammeray' club earlier this week (lotsa comms about that on FB). Hope none of this stuffs around our players. A bit like the Wyong Roos... it's tough working with other clubs that have their own ambitions because no matter what we give them, they won't be happy.

Also, this kinda cloak and daggers shyte is really immature. Reminds me of when I was studying law. A dude whose wife worked at an embassy (senior diplomat from Switzerland) ran our law society (separate one for post-grads who were studying as we had night classes together...etc). As a full-time house husband with connections he did heaps of networking with local lawyers so that we could have drinks/dinners at awesome venues (e.g. the Commonwealth Club with senior lawyers...etc). Some wanka 19 y/o (who I call 'rat boy') did some weird shyte behind the scenes to 'ban' all of the above as it 'wasn't approved' (by the undergrad law society). He then got himself 'elected' as head of our post-grad law society (we all worked full-time so none of us knew/voted) and he started sending around all these stupid e-mails about cruises and stuff he'd organised instead (which none of us attended because they s*cked). It's always fukking annoying when some tool with an agenda takes over and spoils everybody else's fun.