The Western Australian dream has always been a prominent part of the NRL in their pursuits of expansion beyond their half of the Barassi Line.
It's not every day that such a dream becomes an aspiration, and from that aspiration, a reality.
The build-up to the Perth franchise itself must be commended. It has seemed for a long, long time that every rugby league fan had a utopian ideal for what the franchise must look like.
Needless to say, expectations were sky-high when the confirmation of the WA license was finally granted.
Yet what followed has been perhaps one of the most underwhelming introductions to a new franchise the NRL has ever seen.
Despite recently alleviating some salary cap restraints, the Perth Bears is far from the team Western Australians wanted to see and it is safe to say, this time round, the NRL are close to failing not only the Bears but any hope of expanding the NRL beyond the Barassi Line.
The Barassi Line Crossing itself is perhaps the best expansion concept the NRL have tried to work towards and taking their first steps in Perth, the furthest city of any NRL franchise from its headquarters (yes, it's further than Auckland!) strongly rooted in Aussie Rules is a huge risk.
The success of this franchise, however, isn't different from the success of any other – build a geographical identity, which attracts fans, full stop.
In fact, that should have been easy for Perth because the franchise had not only the entire city, but Australia's largest geographical state to itself.
Yet the NRL failed to realise this in time and chose instead to mould the Western Australian franchise into an identity crisis by mixing a forgotten franchise on the other side of the country into its recipe.
Instead of the merger being all about Perth, its people, pride and identity, were very much to do with the original supporters of the North Sydney Bears.
While the Bears claim that it is in itself a new franchise and will play only one of their twelve home games in Sydney, with the other eleven played in Perth at HBF Park, the identity crisis was always there.
The name, jersey and logo were directly inspired by North Sydney's retro franchise so you can't blame the old Bears fans for jumping aboard that bandwagon – every original Bears fan I know has abandoned the club they currently support and have switched to Perth.
Whatever the Bears claim will be taken with a grain of salt. The NRL must be clear with their goal.
Why were the Bears established in the first place? To pander to a bunch of baby boomers bleeding red and black or to expand their horizons across the Barassi Line?
Financially speaking, the latter was always the goal to begin with but it seemed that the NRL have really tried to kill two birds with one stone in establishing this franchise yet somehow achieved neither of the two goals.
In a state literally grounded in AFL for a century, there is no stopping Perth locals from seeing the Bears as nothing more than a branch extension of a private enterprise in Sydney's CBD.
As long as building Western Australian identity still remains relevant to the NRL, the truth is that they cannot possibly hope to achieve that without a sole, Western Australian identity.
The other elephant in the room that must be addressed is the signing problem. Finding players to live on the other side of the country on the same pay is difficult, no doubt.
The only way around that is for some big names to break the ice and lead by example. We've seen the ripple effect of the PNG Chiefs, another expansion club that will kick off a year after Perth, with their signing of Jarome Luai and Alex Johnston, which has gotten some junior players' heads turning.
But the longer it takes for Perth to sign these big names, the less likely that they will get any significant signings at all. And the NRL have not made it any easier, with media figure Gus Gould's blunt remark “It's not a charity” taking the cake, when the Bears reached out for help.
The Western Australian franchise establishment marked a significant step in rugby league expansion, and many would say it was a dream come true.
However, the NRL still has a lot to do to ensure the long-lasting success of such a franchise, especially after the many roadblocks that they were singlehandedly responsible for that may prove to be the ultimate setback to such success.
Thankfully, the NRL must have smelled trouble brewing, as of late, they have given the Bears a salary cap boost of $500,000, which is no doubt a step in the right direction.
Whether or not this makes up for the extensive obstacle course the NRL have created for Perth remains to be seen, which will be crucial to the success of future voyages into the Western side of the Barassi Line.
