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When they were known as the North Sydney Bears, they were the whipping boys for the majority of their 92 years in the premiership.
That was when they were on a level playing field and their lack of success was pretty much entirely their fault.
But after emerging from nearly three decades in hibernation in Perth, they are being doomed to failure again by the NRL. Not just because Mal Meninga was parachuted in as coach.
They’ll be getting no leg-up from head office in terms of salary cap concessions, just a pat on the back to do your best against the 17 other established rivals who want nothing more than for your franchise to struggle from kick-off.
It’s par for the course, you might say, given that the Dolphins a few years beforehand received no preferential treatment in their admission to the top flight.
But they were an established team with junior pathways in the heartiest of rugby league heartlands.
The Bears are operating in deepest, darkest AFL territory where the previous rugby league attempt lasted no more than three years and the rugby union team, the Force, has had a rather tumultuous existence in the western capital.
Meninga during the week made the plea for the clubs to agree to reasonable requests for them to grant salary cap concessions to his expansion outfit.
He may as well asked them to donate an arm and a leg because NRL club CEOs are not renowned for their empathy to opposition teams, which was summed up by Wests Tigers boss Shane Richardson telling the Sydney Morning Herald that “it’s bullshit on every level if they think they’re going to get concessions”.
ARL Commission supremo Peter V’landys has dismissed the option of allowances being made for expansion outfits because it would not be fair on the existing teams.
Visionary.
Western Reds captain Brad Mackay with the foundation team in 1995. (Getty Images)
The Perth Bears are going into a death spiral before they draw their first breath.
They will be forced to overpay for middling recruits, which means they will have an imbalanced roster from day one, which will in turn lead to the already tough task of earning wins becoming almost impossible.
All this will create a stigma for potential recruits over the crucial start-up years of the franchise and the cycle will be on an endless repeat cycle.
Basically, they’ll be the Gold Coast of the west except without any tangible junior nursery to provide a pipeline of talent for the future, not that any of the better young prospects stay at the Titans for too long.
The Bears finished their stint in the big league with a 77-year premiership drought. If the count doesn’t reset in 2027, they will give the century a nudge.
Since the competition began to look outside its Sydney borders in 1982 with the introduction of the Illawarra Steelers and Canberra Raiders, the record of expansion teams has fluctuated wildly.
Canberra, Brisbane, Newcastle, North Queensland and Melbourne have won premierships in that 43-year stretch, combining for 16 titles. Not bad.
The Storm are held up as the shining example of how the NRL can gain a foothold in an AFL market and be successful.
But for that to happen, there was an ideal confluence of events … a perfect storm if you will.
Brett Kimmorley in action for the Storm in 1998. Photo: Dave Rogers/Allsport
They were able to feast upon the Super League-aligned rosters of the Mariners and Reds when they kicked off in 1998 to then throw in a few more experienced free agents like Tawera Nikau and Glenn Lazarus to form not only a competitive team from the get-go but one that took out the title in year two.
The Storm looked set to be downgraded to a drizzle a few years later before the club’s trajectory changed forever when they took a chance on a coach with potential in Craig Bellamy and scouted generational talents in Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis.
Of the others, the Adelaide Rams (two), Gold Coast Giants/Seagulls/Chargers (11), Hunter Mariners (one), South Queensland Crushers (three) and Western Reds (three) lasted for a combined 20 seasons.
The financially stricken Steelers were forced to merge with a traditional powerhouse in St George after the Super League war took its toll while foundation clubs died in the case of Newtown Jets in 1983 or entered into a shotgun wedding which has been mostly unsuccessful in Balmain and the Magpies becoming Wests Tigers.
After a relatively settled couple of decades since the Bears’ bit role in the Northern Eagles debacle ended, the NRL has been a relatively stable environment.
But now as the league approaches another period of expansion, the relative success of the Dolphins in challenging for the finals before ultimately falling short in each of their first three seasons is highly unlikely to be replicated by Perth or PNG when they enter the competition 12 months later in 2028.
Tyran Wishart is tackled. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Perth are closing in on the signatures of Panthers forward Liam Henry and Storm utility Tyran Wishart, who are exactly the type of players that they should be targeting.
They are both established first-graders with plenty of upside who are facing a stiff challenge to get a regular starting berth at their current club.
For the Chiefs, the lure of a tax-free salary is not going to trump the prospect of being forced to live in a security compound in one of the world’s most dangerous cities in a third-world nation for the NRL’s big names.
At least they are getting some kind of help to get their team up and running but they are also on a hiding to nothing.
