Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'Landys has spoken favourably of the prospects that a Perth expansion bid could link up with the North Sydney Bears.
It was reported over the weekend that it could be the case moving forward, with talks between the two parties occurring in Brisbane over the Magic Round weekend.
The Bears logo hasn't been sighted in the NRL since they were turfed out at the end of 1998 alongside numerous other clubs, who either folded or merged as the competition shrunk in size following the Super League war.
The Western Reds, who played in the ARL in 1995 and 1996, before switching to the Super League for 1997, were never involved in the joined competition from 1998 onwards.
With the Dolphins - based out of Redcliffe - set to enter the competition for 2023 though, the NRL are keen to take the competition to 18 teams as soon as practically possible.
Both V'Landys and NRL CEO Andrew Abdo have spoken about the need to have 17 competitive teams, however, the financial benefits of a ninth game every week, no byes, and a possible ability to add a time zone for the TV deal are beyond questioning.
It's thought Perth or a second team in New Zealand are leading the race for those reasons, and V'Landys told The Daily Telegraph that the fan base of the Bears could be the way to get the job done.
“One thing I’ve learned in rugby league is that the Bears have an extremely popular brand,” V’landys said.
“However there’s already enough Sydney teams so doing it with an area like Perth makes sense.
“You’re getting the best of both. A great brand and a new supporter base.”
V'Landys also confirmed though that there would be no emotion in the decision, and each expansion bid would only be based on the business case.
“We went with the Dolphins for the 17th because they had a strong business case,” V'landys said.
“They were financially strong and we wouldn’t have to subsidise them.
“It’s about bringing in fans that aren’t currently engaged in rugby league because you don’t want a new team taking supporters from the current clubs.
“The Dolphins proved to us they weren’t going to take anything away from the Titans or Broncos.
“They did a significant analysis that showed they could bring 200,000 new fans to rugby league.
“We used that to generate more money from the broadcasters.
“Whoever gets the 18th team has to do the same. They have to engage new people to the sport.”
Perth will be hard.
Like the AFL’s Greater Western Sydney franchise is finding, in a city dominated by one code, introducing another requires lots of money and infrastructure.
Certainly, a new Perth League franchise would not have to compete with an existing League club, in the same way that GWS compete with the Swans, but Sydney has a much bigger population than Perth.
PNG would be a lot easier to set up with no problem about fans. NRL could throw its money into refurbishing the stadium in Port Moresby and get the government on side.
The logistics would not be too bad as long as they scheduled the home and away matches sensibly, so the PNG team had (say) four consecutive matches at home, then another four in QLD (staying over in QLD rather than travelling back) then four at home, then four in NSW etc.
Much better way to go, in my view.