{"id":399161,"date":"2026-01-08T06:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399161\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:25:08","slug":"storm-warning-perth-bears-finalising-nrl-deals-for-star-melbourne-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399161\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm Warning\u2014Perth Bears finalising NRL deals for star Melbourne duo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just a day after announcing the signing of Canterbury forward\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/bulldogs-forward-joins-perth-bears-huge-recruitment-win\/9fac8130b2000d8d9e2471cb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Josh Curran<\/a> on a three-year deal, Perth Bears are set to deliver a double blow to 2024 and 2025 NRL grand finalists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/melbourne-storm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melbourne Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Long <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/storm-star-nrl-future-nick-meaney-confirms-perth-bears-talks\/29f228a530053a6dd3477284\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rumoured<\/a> to be on the move west, there are reports that experienced outside back and gun goal kicker Nick Meaney, 28, has agreed to terms on a long-term deal with Mal Meninga\u2019s side from 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Key Storm utility Tyran Wishart, 26, is also close to doing the same according to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailytelegraph.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/perth-bears-sign-melbourne-storm-utility-nick-meaney-as-ninth-signing-for-inaugural-nrl-squad\/news-story\/5389158d7dd78c60e106d00614e5adcf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Daily Telegraph.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Luring both Meaney and Wishart across the Nullarbor for 2027 would represent a major coup for the Bears, providing a significant addition of NRL finals experience to a backline that will also include Sean Russell, Toby Sexton and England international\u00a0Harry Newman.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a style=\"\" target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/kalyn-ponga-injury-return-las-vegas-knights-walsh-origin-qld\/a904b0e07d65c17f47c81762\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kalyn Ponga injury update, Knights skipper eyes Vegas comeback and Origin redemption<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is believed Meaney will be given first shot at playing fullback for the Bears, a position he is set to fight with\u00a022-year-old Sua Fa&#8217;alogo for at the Storm in 2026 following the off-season departure of\u00a0Ryan Papenhuyzen.<\/p>\n<p>Other players signed by the Bears so far include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/penrith-panthers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penrith Panthers<\/a> forward\u00a0Liam Henry and\u00a0Iszac Fa\u2019asuamaleaui, the younger brother of Tino.<\/p>\n<p>Perth will become the NRL\u2019s 18th franchise when it joins the NRL competition for the start of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a day after announcing the signing of Canterbury forward\u00a0Josh Curran on a three-year deal, Perth Bears are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-399161","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\/399161","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=399161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}