{"id":664982,"date":"2026-05-12T01:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/664982\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T01:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T01:11:10","slug":"what-do-you-need-help-for-gould-tees-off-on-bears-dispensation-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/664982\/","title":{"rendered":"“What do you need help for?”: Gould tees off on Bears dispensation drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs<\/a> head honcho Phil Gould has weighed in on the ongoing dilemma surrounding Perth Bears’ recruitment activity following their entry into the NRL<\/a> next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bears board member James Bracey was once again questioned on the matter on Nine’s 100% Footy,\u00a0where co-panellists Gould and Paul Gallen<\/a> agreed the Bears shouldn’t seek dispensation from the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The topic was at large last week, where Bracey and Gallen had a verbal stoush surrounding the matter.<\/p>\n

Gallen turned critical of their activity on player signings and team marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> reporting that the Bears will receive help from the NRL<\/a>, tensions flared up again.<\/p>\n

This week, Gallen doubled down, saying he believes the other already established clubs will be at a disadvantage if Perth receive benefits from the NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think you deserve any salary cap dispensation or any help,” Gallen said.<\/p>\n

“What happens to the rest of the competition? Gus, if they get salary cap dispensation, are you gonna be upset?”<\/p>\n

Gould interjected, questioning why the Bears will need support, given they are in Australia<\/a> and have had ample time to organise their squad and commercial partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Absolutely, I’m voting against that. What do you need help for? It’s not a charity, mate, it’s a competition,” the Bulldogs general manager said.<\/p>\n

Bracey, who joined the expansion side’s board ahead of their inaugural season, clarified what the help from the NRL<\/a> meant.<\/p>\n

“Just to make it clear, when you’re talking about salary cap dispensation, it’s not about adding a couple million bucks to the salary cap,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Maybe get a bit of help with third parties, that would be nice.”<\/p>\n

Pressure has been building on the Bears after PNG Chiefs<\/a> signed superstar Jarome Luai<\/a> and Alex Johnston<\/a> as their first two signings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The West Coast club has indeed signed NRL<\/a> quality, but the Chiefs are being praised for being able to reel in a big fish so quickly ahead of their entry 18 months away.<\/p>\n

PNG general manager Michael Chammas flew well-known figures in the podcasting and social media community over to Port Moresby last week to tour facilities and give them a glimpse of life as a Chief.<\/p>\n

It was a genius move to get the prominent figures onside with the Melanesian club, given their big audiences in the NRL<\/a> community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bracey was then questioned about the same level of commitment to promoting Perth; however, he explained the reason for the international tours taking place.<\/p>\n

“He’s using [PNG] government money for that; we’re owned by the NRL<\/a>,” Bracey responded.<\/p>\n

The Bears will officially kick off their campaign when their inaugural squad begins preseason training in November this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs head honcho Phil Gould has weighed in on the ongoing dilemma surrounding Perth Bears’ recruitment activity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-664982","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\/664982","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=664982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}