They haven’t even entered the NRL yet, but Perth Bears are already looking to grow the sport and take some of their matches on the road.
The NRL’s 18th team will join the competition in 2027, and so far have only recruited around a dozen players.
Some of those are known to fans of Super League, with the likes of Harry Newman, James McDonnell and Toby Sexton all switching to Western Australia at the end of the season.
Led by Mal Meninga, the club have plenty of things on their checklist still to complete before that 2027 start date, but the club’s CEO is already thinking about a potential fixture overseas.
Speaking to CityAM in Australia, the Perth chief, Anthony De Ceglie, he revealed he wants to take advantage of the geography between Perth and the rest of the competition, and grow the game in countries closer to them.
He said: “We are in a very different time zone to Sydney and Melbourne. We are in the economic Asian powerhouse time zone and that’s really handy for us.
“There’s so many opportunities because of the time zone of Perth, not just into the east coast market, because it means we can play that late game, but also taking the game into Asia could be huge.
“I’d love to take the NRL to Singapore; it could be the Perth version of Las Vegas.”
Rugby League in Singapore is growing, and the nation even had their first ever competitive fixture in 2025, as they faced both Japan and the Philippines in the Asian Championship – which they won.
NRL club’s CEO hoping to “capitalise on the growth of the game”
De Ceglie’s ideas come on the back of the expansion plans of NRL supremo’s Andrew Abdo and Peter V’Landys who, as well as looking at buying a potential stake in Super League, also curated the Las Vegas Rugby League event that has been a huge success over the past few seasons.
If Perth can tap into the Asian market, it would only be a positive thing for the game and it’s long-term sustainability.
“They are very impressive,” said De Ceglie in regards to V’Landys and the NRL. “They always think about what’s good for the game and what’s good for the viewer. I can’t imagine them doing anything that isn’t going to, at its heart, maintain those two goals.
“We’re the most watched sporting code in Australia and we have a monopoly on it in Western Australia. It’s a pretty easy selling point, but we’re capitalising on the growth of the game. We’re very lucky to be doing that.”
Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here.
