The Perth Bears have locked in their seventh signing for their inaugural season with outside back Sean Russell set to make the move west in 2027 after he signed a four-year deal.<\/p>\n
The early Christmas present caps a busy festive period for the league\u2019s newest franchise, with Russell joining Toby Sexton, Iszac Fa\u2019asuamaleaui, Harry Newman, Liam Henry and emerging prospects Emarly Bitugane and Luke Smith as signings for 2027.<\/p>\n
Russell, 23, made his NRL debut back in 2021 for Parramatta and has scored 24 tries in 61 appearances for the club. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s become a regular for the Eels, with Russell scoring five tries in 21 games in 2024 and another five tries from 20 matches last season on the wing and at centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s already a lot of excitement and anticipation about the Bears entering the NRL. I am delighted to have the opportunity to be a part of it,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy focus right now remains on the Eels and giving all that I have for 2026. They have supported me throughout my career and I am forever grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bears coach Mal Meninga is looking forward to working with someone he sees as an \u201cimportant piece\u201d of the squad for many years to come. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another fantastic day for the Perth Bears with Sean committing to our club on a long-term deal,\u201d Meninga said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSean is an outstanding talent who possesses the characteristics I am looking for as we continue to build our inaugural roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a proven try-scorer and a fantastic defender. I have no doubt he will be a very important piece in our roster for many years to come\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Bears will turn up the heat after Christmas as they continue to build their squad, with versatile Bulldogs forward Josh Curran and Storm utility Tyran Wishart on their radar.<\/p>\n
Experienced players will be key going forward, with Perth also needing to land some elite talent in their spine. <\/p>\n
\u201cSean is another Perth Bears recruit who has his best footy ahead of him,\u201d Bears general manager of football David Sharpe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis talent on the field speaks for itself, but it is the qualities he has shown off the field that impress me the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m delighted to welcome Sean to the Bears in what is another significant day in the history of our club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read related topics:Perth<\/a>Sydney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Perth Bears have locked in their seventh signing for their inaugural season with outside back Sean Russell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,13149,11639,761,762,158,22798,3252,4503,127524,85],"class_list":["post-378761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-contracts","tag-mal-meninga","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-perth-bears","tag-player-movement","tag-sean-russell","tag-signings","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378761","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=378761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}