{"id":731067,"date":"2026-06-12T04:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731067\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:05:17","slug":"bears-whacked-with-40k-in-fines-for-nrl-rule-breach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731067\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears whacked with $40k in fines for NRL rule breach"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL has slapped expansion side Perth and coach Mal Meninga with fines totalling $40,000 for breaches of the league’s anti-tampering rules.<\/p>\n

The fines relate to media comments made by foundation coach Meninga about the Bears’ hopes of signing Penrith star Nathan Cleary and Canterbury duo Matt Burton and Jacob Preston.<\/p>\n

The NRL tightened its rules in the pre-season such that clubs risk fines over perceived public attempts to court players before the final year of their contract.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/p>\n

Jacob Preston is contracted with the Bulldogs until the end of the 2027 season. (Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Cleary, Burton and Preston are unable to negotiate with rival outfits until November 1, given they are contracted with their current clubs through 2027.<\/p>\n

But in comments to News Corp last month, Meninga said Perth would be “in the picture” for second-rower Preston beyond that, and that there had been “a heap of noise” around Burton.<\/p>\n

He also alluded to signing Cleary from Penrith, should he opt to test the market from November.<\/p>\n

“We will have enough money in our cap to maybe chase a Nathan or a Jake (Preston) if they come on to the open market,” Meninga said.<\/p>\n

Meninga’s $20,000 fine has been suspended, but the NRL’s forthcoming 18th franchise will pay their own $20,000 sanction up-front.<\/p>\n

\"Penrith<\/p>\n

Penrith and Origin star Nathan Cleary is certain to attract plenty of attention. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The Bears and Meninga have five business days to respond to their breach notice.<\/p>\n

The fines loom as a demoralising blow for Perth, whose inaugural roster still lacks a marquee player ahead of their 2027 entry into the NRL.<\/p>\n

Without any extra salary-cap assistance, the Bears have been forced to jostle for space in the player market with fellow expansion side PNG, who enter in 2028.<\/p>\n

The federal government-backed Chiefs are able to offer tax-free salaries to their players and have already signed Wests Tigers star Jarome Luai, the league’s greatest-ever try-scorer Alex Johnston and former State of Origin utility Connor Watson.<\/p>\n

Conversely, the Bears’ only signing with Origin experience is Siosifa Talakai, who played two games for NSW in 2022.<\/p>\n

Their only premiership players so far are Penrith bench forwards Liam Henry and Scott Sorensen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has slapped expansion side Perth and coach Mal Meninga with fines totalling $40,000 for breaches of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4592,11639,13217,353880,1203,761,762,158,16284,85,55661],"class_list":["post-731067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jacob-preston","tag-mal-meninga","tag-matt-burton","tag-media-comments","tag-nathan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-penrith","tag-sports","tag-the-bears"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731067","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=731067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}