{"id":416639,"date":"2026-01-16T10:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/416639\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T10:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:02:10","slug":"bears-poach-young-gun-from-the-tigers-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/416639\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears poach young gun from the Tigers &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/perth-bears\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perth Bears<\/a> have continued their strong recruitment drive ahead of their inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> campaign, securing the signature of promising young outside back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/luke-laulilii\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luke Laulilii<\/a> on a two-year deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Laulilii becomes the 13th player to commit to the Bears for their debut 2027 season, capping off a monumental week for the club as it builds the foundations of its first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At just 19, he is currently the youngest signing in the Bears&#8217; growing roster.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-226825\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Luke-Laulilii-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\" alt=\"Luke Laulilii\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1696\"  \/>Luke Laulilli in action. (Photo: Flickr- @NAPARAZZI)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Speaking after signing, Laulilii said the move to Perth presented an opportunity to further develop his game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/perth-bears\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perth Bears<\/a> provide an opportunity for me to continue to develop my game and take it to the next level,\u201d Laulilii said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI&#8217;m excited about the prospect of playing in front of the fans in Perth. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI know how much they love their sport and it&#8217;s a privilege to be part of a rugby league team that represents the people of Western <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/coaches\/mal-meninga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mal Meninga<\/a> welcomed Laulilii to the club, praising his versatility and potential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cLuke is a very talented and athletic outside back who will provide us plenty of options,\u201d Meninga said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe&#8217;s a fantastic finisher and strong defender. I&#8217;m sure he will continue to develop this season and we look forward to welcoming him and his family to Western <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/perth-bears\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perth Bears<\/a> General Manager of Football David Sharpe echoed those sentiments, describing Laulilii as an exciting addition to the club&#8217;s future plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cLuke is an exciting prospect, and we&#8217;re very happy to have secured him for the next two seasons,\u201d Sharpe said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The versatile 19-year-old debuted in first grade for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/wests-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a> in 2024 and has since made nine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> appearances, scoring four tries. <\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Capable of playing across the backline, Laulilii is regarded as an exciting long-term prospect with strong athleticism and finishing ability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Perth Bears have continued their strong recruitment drive ahead of their inaugural NRL campaign, securing the signature&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-416639","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\/416639","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=416639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}