\u201cThere\u2019s no need for any incentives, and at this stage, we\u2019re more than confident they\u2019ll assemble a competitive roster, just as the Dolphins were able to before they entered the competition,\u201d V\u2019landys said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing that\u2019s great about our competition, especially last season, is that everyone is treated equally. I\u2019m not worried about Perth. They will be more than fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried about Perth. They will be more than fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter V\u2019landys<\/p>\n
However, the Dolphins were established in Brisbane, in rugby league heartland, and had their own fertile nursery. Perth, by contrast, is a staunchly AFL city a five-hour flight from the east coast.<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s 19th franchise, Papua New Guinea, will have the luxury of entering the open market next November with tax-free incentives.<\/p>\n
The Sydney Swans received cost-of-living allowances worth nearly $1 million from the AFL to make the club more attractive for interstate players worried about covering rent and mortgages in the most expensive city in Australia. However, those allowances were phased out in 2014 amid protests from powerful Victorian clubs.<\/p>\n
There is also the chance for AFL players to make more money via league-funded ambassadorial roles if they move and help promote the game in the northern states.<\/p>\n
The Bears on Monday announced North Sydney as their official pathways partner and said there were plans to open an academy early next year to keep the best local talent in the west. But the immediate concern is recruiting an NRL team that can be competitive from the outset. The last thing the NRL needs is its newest club being soundly beaten every week.<\/p>\n
Fa\u2019asuamaleaui would be a huge coup for the Bears, but the representative forward has also been sounded out by Melbourne about a return to the club where he made his NRL debut in 2019. Titans officials are privately confident Fa\u2019asuamaleaui will stay, and they might have their answer by the time he returns from a family holiday.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
Newton said on Monday: \u201cWe\u2019ve raised these issues with Andrew [Abdo] and the NRL repeatedly. We\u2019ve been crystal clear that Perth would face challenges in recruiting players, and we\u2019ve been trying to get the NRL to problem solve that since the bid was confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat concerns me is the NRL seems ready and willing to quickly redirect funds from the PNG bid to pay off existing clubs, but I\u2019m yet to see how that benefits the game or fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, when it comes to supporting an expansion club to actually sign players, there is not as much urgency \u2013 if any. We\u2019re ready to work through sensible CBA amendments to support Mal [Meninga] and Perth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s no need for any incentives, and at this stage, we\u2019re more than confident they\u2019ll assemble a competitive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-306260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}