Bad News Bears: Media, Politics, and the Fight for a National Rugby League Team in Western Australia, 1995-2027

In 2027, the Perth Bears will play its first competitive game in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The introduction of the Bears will be a significant milestone. It will mark thirty years since Perth last fielded a team at the top level and will do so in partnership with the North Sydney Bears—both of which were casualties of the Super League Wars in the mid to late1990s. While early membership numbers, sponsorship deals, and attendance at major rugby league games hosted in Perth indicate strong potential for the Bears to become a long-term success story, much of the media reaction to date has been unequivocally hostile. Most notably, after the announcement of the Bears in May 2025 the front-page headline of The West Australian was the “Bad News Bears”, describing WA Premier Roger Cook’s deceptive efforts to “make WA taxpayers pay” to“ relocate a dud second division team to play in Perth”.

This research project will be the first piece of scholarly literature to focus on Perth’s thirty year history to establish and sustain a national rugby league team in Western Australia. Through critical analysis of archival and media sources, it will trace the challenges Western Australian teams have faced in establishing a top-flight rugby league team. This includes the demise of the Western Reds in the 1990s, the failed West Coast Pirates NRL-bid during the 2010s, and the creation of the Perth Bears between 2025 and 2027. It will also analyse public commentaries on the lead up to the Bears inaugural game in early 2027,highlighting the ways in which media outlets can influence public perceptions of rugby league and shape the rivalry between the NRL and the Australian Football League (AFL). In this novel contribution to rugby league history, this project will provide a unique case study into the complex interplay between media and politics in Australian professional sport.

Andrew Kelly is a Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice at Edith Cowan University with a PhD in History and an established publication record spanning scholarly books, peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and conference papers. His research focus has included Australia-New Zealand relations, Cold War foreign policy and higher education practice