Perth Bears coach Mal Meninga has revealed how the 18th NRL franchise will honour the historically rich grassroots of North Sydney, while opening their arms towards the eager Perth market.

The Perth Bears' inaugural franchise must adopt the renowned grit and high-octane spirit that characterised the North Sydney Bears during the 1980s and 1990s.

When speaking exclusively with Zero Tackle, Meninga revealed the intricate details of balancing the Western-Australian market along with paying homage to the North Sydney foundations. 

"I think it's a number one criteria really initially, so understanding and acknowledging the history of the North Sydney Bears, I think that's extremely important," the 13th Immortal said. 

"Foundation club, 1908, went through, had some ups and downs through its existence really, and that we're representative of that, which is really important.

"Then you've got the WA Rugby League, of course, and then we also acknowledge the Western Reds. They had a short period of time over in Perth, in WA, and they were quite successful really.

"They had money in the bank and doing quite well, but obviously because of the game at that time, they had to fold and they were one of the casualties of it all.

"So, building a culture, and understand your history but obviously building something brand new and taking that history with you is a really important part of the cultural identification of the club."

Meninga and the Bears have the opportunity to showcase 'home' support from both sides of the country. The ties in North Sydney when they travel to the east coast, while also chipping away in Perth. It gives them an increased benefit to build an empire of fans across the country. 

The North Sydney Bears' demise came as a short and bitter joint venture with the Manly Sea Eagles, which culminated in a fierce rivalry between the two neighbouring areas across the bridge.

Following the transition from the Super League, the two clubs emerged with financial issues and in 2000, became one identity and formed the Northern Eagles.

The respective fan bases of both clubs weren't able to get on board with the merger, and disconnected after two years, with the Sea Eagles returning to the NRL and the Bears wallowing. 

Many Bears tragics single out the Sea Eagles as the reason the iconic North Sydney club was left out of the NRL for 25 years. 

Meninga, when the time comes, will no-doubt use that history to get his side ready to face Manly for the first time, which will be an emotional encounter for both clubs.

"It's a bit too early for that," Meninga responded when asked if he'll have Manly pencilled in on the 2027 calendar.

"We are putting some things together around our draw and while we travel and how we get accommodated whilst we're away.

"Of course, that's a really important part of our welfare, wellbeing for the players but also for us to when we do travel to the east coast that, firstly, we're going to play at a high level so we want to be competitive right from the beginning.

"So all those little things are really, really important to the way you address things with the players and with the club itself. It's all the little things. It's a lot of detail that goes into professional sport and then certainly into the high-performance area in the football department.

"I think the exciting part about when there's no sort of framework that you need to work to, there's obviously some fundamentals, non-negotiables around how you do it all, but we can be as creative and innovative as we possibly can be."

The Bears have recruited three English international stars for their maiden season: Harry Newman, James McDonnell and Mikolaj Oledzki. It is a strong indication Meninga is willing to use Perth's geographical location as an advantage to sign talent from the Northern Hemisphere.

Perth locals can fly one-way to London, giving it an edge over the east coast cluster of NRL clubs, whose most-direct route involves stopping over in the Middle East.

Although it may seem insignificant, English players are only one-flight away from their home-soil. That attraction means Meninga and the Bears have identified their location as a strength, given three of their 21 signed players are English.

"Yeah, we've signed three English players on that are playing in the Super League, all internationals in the England side. Hopefully, all three will be in the England World Cup side as well."

"So, it is an advantage. I mean, we've got quite a big population of English in Perth and we've got a big population of South Africans in Perth as well. So all around the state of WA. So it'd be silly for us not to sort of tap into that."

The Bears launched their 'Tracks' program in April, which pipelines youthful local talent through their pathways from rugby league and rugby union backgrounds, with their reach extending to Brisbane and North Sydney.

Meninga also isn't ruling out a raid on South African talent down the line, with only the Indian Ocean separating Australia from South Africa's East Coast.

With plenty of union talent emerging from South Africa, Meninga is excited about exploring what it could mean for the Bears in the future. 

South Africa is still a developing rugby league country, and is vastly outweighed in popularity by the rival 15-man code. Despite this, there are domestic competitions taking place, governed by the South African Rugby League, with teams competing in the Rhino Cup.

It opens the doors for the Bears to establish pathways within South Africa to develop the nation for a new generation of Bears, and more importantly, an opportunity to poach international Springbok rugby talent. 

"There is a big rugby league fraternity over there (Perth), there's a lot of people, a lot of Kiwis and a lot of east coasters," he added.

"So (there's) certainly areas we want to push in. We've already had conversations with people in South Africa. We've had a visit from a South African manager and things like that.

"We'll push into those spaces when given time, but we can't do it all right from the beginning of course, because we've got other commitments, but I mean it's certainly part of our charter."

As the months tick away, Meninga is continuing to build his side to compete in the NRL next year, which is headlined by Tyran Wishart, Nick Meaney, Siosifa Talakai, Toby Sexton and the Laulilii brothers.

The Bears will officially kick off their campaign in November this year, when the playing squad commences preseason training ahead of their maiden 2027 campaign.