The Bears are set to win cap concessions at last. But there’s a bigger problem brewing

The Perth Bears are close to two things: winning a significant salary cap concession, and a flash point for head coach Mal Meninga as tensions grow over his involvement with the club.

First, the good news. A meeting between Bears board members James Bracey and Daniel Dickson and NRL supremo Peter V’landys is poised to put the Bears in a stronger position in their quest to sign quality players.

The Rugby League Players’ Association, led by Clint Newton, has been calling on NRL bosses to help the expansion club attract players to Perth and there are now serious discussions being held on how that can happen.

Bracey, a sports presenter for Nine (the publisher of this masthead), went cap in hand to V’landys last Friday after a week of watching the PNG Chiefs revel in positive publicity after signing Jarome Luai.

They met on Monday afternoon, a few hours before Bracey’s public stoush with Paul Gallen on 100% Footy over claims by the ex-Sharks captain that the Bears are not promoting their franchise enough. V’landys took the point of Bracey, Dickson and the Newton, and agreed something has to be done. The idea is to tap into the dollars of Perth’s business community, which if successful could make the Bears a serious player in their attempts to land a marquee player or two.

But of greater concern to the Bears will be our revelations of tension between Meninga and assistant coach Ben Gardiner. A polo shirt worn by Gardiner in TV and filmed radio interviews gives a deeper insight into problems surrounding Meninga.

Gardiner, who was part of the Panthers coaching team that won premierships in 2023-24, is also the head coach of the Samoan national team. He organised the media appearances off his own bat to raise awareness and sponsorship for Samoa. However, he is on the Bears payroll and was told by Bears officials that they didn’t want him doing media.

Gardiner and Meninga are not seeing eye to eye because Gardiner is seen as a threat. His failure to wear a Bears polo shirt is a sign of a bigger issue at the club. And the problems are real around Meninga.

The reason Gardiner wasn’t wearing Bears colours during interviews has been difficult to extract from the club, but it is thought to be down to an edict from within the organisation. The idea is to limit Gardiner’s media exposure because he is an assistant.

In other words, Gardiner needs to stay in his lane and not tread on Mal’s toes.

Gardiner declined to comment.

Meninga is on a $1 million per season deal, yet continues to live in Canberra. That is infuriating the NRL. HQ is questioning his choices in that regard. His lack of visibility in recent months is also putting noses out of joint.

Meninga has not coached in the NRL for two decades, and would be aware of the view that Gardiner, who has been named to succeed Meninga in 2029, will be pulling most of the strings when it comes to coaching the Bears.

This all feeds into the narrative out of Perth that Meninga is becoming increasingly isolated in his position. He lost his mate and protector, the club’s general manager, David Sharpe who has quit. This column also revealed that Meninga has lost the support of NRL, who approved his deal. He won’t walk, but the situation can’t be allowed to continue.

Watson could fill Cook’s shoes at Dragons

The Dragons are looking at Roosters and NSW utility Connor Watson to help counteract the departure of co-captain Damien Cook at the end of the season.

Watson, 29, is an option for a one-year or multiple-year signing at St George Illawarra. PNG is also a 2028 consideration for Watson, who has held talks with the new franchise.

Cook wasn’t willing to hang around and hope for a new deal at the Dragons, who had frozen all contract talks amid uncertainty over the head coaching situation – and that’s why he chose to do a deal with English club Castleford.

He was about to re-sign with the Dragons, but Shane Flanagan’s exit meant negotiations were stopped.

It would have been a great show of respect for a high-quality person and player if the club had done the Cook deal despite the coaching drama. It didn’t happen, so the former Blue and Kangaroo decided to head on his next adventure.

Seven offside with Storm over Bellamy

The Melbourne Storm went out of their way to thank journalists who handled the Craig Bellamy situation last week with care and respect.

As mentioned in this column, I’d been dealing with their heavyweights Matt Tripp and Frank Ponissi in the background about how Bellamy wanted to announce his illness after becoming aware of the situation.

The multiple grand final-winning coach has been diagnosed with a form of neurodegenerative disorder after undergoing tests. The club revealed the 66-year-old’s diagnosis in a statement two weeks ago.

The Storm are not pleased with the Seven Network, which staked out the team then followed Bellamy with a camera, an approach seen as disrespectful considering the sensitivity of the story.

It was a bad week for Seven, which also dropped the ball by not getting to Papua New Guinea to cover the arrival of Willie Peters’ wife, Kera, and be shown around Port Moresby on a tour put on for media by Chiefs chief executive Lorna McPherson and general manager Michael Chammas.

Seven said it had not been invited on the media tour and that only men had been asked to attend. But there was no “media tour” for traditional media.

Nine sports reporter Zac Bailey initiated and organised his own trip, which was paid for by Nine. His security, which everyone will need outside the compound, was also organised by Nine. The main story Bailey covered was a beauty – it involved Kera going to see Port Moresby for the first time with her family. It was no secret, as this column flagged it was happening two weeks ago.

McPherson was heavily involved in the story. The suggestion that the Chiefs discriminated against women has annoyed the organisation.

Chammas used a tactic from the Donald Trump playbook by embracing podcasters to help sell the PNG story. He handpicked three of the most influential rugby league podcasts, Hello Sport, The Bye Round and Levels, to get a first-hand look at everything the Chiefs were doing.

Willie Mason, who works for Seven as well as Levels, took his wife, as did Chiefs head of recruitment Liam Ayoub and Chammas. The podcasters were guests of the club.

While he is selling the message to rugby league fans, Chammas is smart enough to know players will also be listening closely to the podcasts.

The images seen on Nine News through Bailey’s reporting were insightful and let viewers see the reality behind the narrative the Chiefs are selling.

The Chiefs gave plenty of people in the NRL a lesson in how to generate great publicity with the signing of Luai. It helps that Chammas knows the media landscape as well as anyone. After myself and News Corp’s Michael Carayannis broke the story for our respective media organisations of Luai’s PNG visit before he eventually signed on the dotted line, the next 48 hours became a rolling advertisement for the Chiefs.

Sea Eagles go extra mile for stricken fan

The Finn family are doing their best to make as many memories as possible after a devastating diagnosis for their son, Cam.

Their beautiful boy didn’t have a worry in the world other than a broken arm and a flu that was taking too long to go away this time last year. It was only when he began to struggle to use the left side of his body did they realise something more could be at play. Those fears were confirmed when young Cam, a huge Sea Eagles fan, was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare and highly aggressive brain tumour.

“DIPG is a devastating diagnosis,” said his mum Laura. “Around Australia, and all over the world, parents and caretakers are told there is nothing that can be done medically, go home and make memories, so that becomes your mission.”

It’s why we want to tell you about this photo of Cam, Jamal Fogarty and Kieran Foran. The Sea Eagles stars won’t want it, but they deserve acknowledgment, as does the bravery of the young man in the picture.

Two weeks ago, the family put out a plea via social media to ask whether someone from Manly could visit Cam in hospital.

The club was inundated by people reaching out. The family’s plea made it all the way to ARLC chairman Peter V’landys. Foran and Fogarty, along with Sea Eagles football manager John Bonasera, organised to travel to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle the following day to visit Cam and his family.

They saw Cam and brought Manly merchandise for him. They then had Cam’s name on their kicking tee against the Panthers last Sunday night. Cam and his family were scheduled (health permitting) to make the trip to Brookvale on Saturday night for the game against the Broncos.

“We asked the Sea Eagles to help with that mission to make memories, and they have gone above and beyond to make Cam’s dreams come true,” Laura said.

“They have surrounded our entire family with love and support, and offered unlimited access to the team, and any experiences they can offer.

“Cam and his two brothers haven’t stopped smiling. We cannot put into words how much that means to us.”

Hynes a changed man after Origin heartache

With State of Origin selection a hot topic again, we tried to ask Nicho Hynes about his difficult debut off the bench for the Blues in Adelaide in 2023, a moment he still struggles to open up about.

But in a sign of his growth, the Cronulla halfback said he’d love nothing more than a chance to play for NSW again one day.

He knows he is not in contention now. But at one point he was seen as a “must pick”.

At the Adelaide Oval three years ago, Hynes was thrust into the centres with 11 minutes to play and missed a tackle on Cameron Munster that led to a try. He’s not the first player to do that and won’t be the last, but it sat with him in the aftermath of the Blues’ loss.

I was in that dressing room that night in Adelaide and I don’t think I’ve seen many players more shattered than Hynes was. At one point it looked like he was trying to leave the sheds without his teammates as the scene was too distressing for him. Seeing a good, proud man like that was heartbreaking. And hard-nosed journalists aren’t meant to feel like that.

These days, he’s a changed man who, in his own words, “no longer carries the divots of his performances”. Hynes didn’t want to talk about that night, but said: “I’m not defined by the 80 minutes on the field.”

“At the time, I felt it – all of it. I was someone who cared a lot. Like, I still do care. That’s probably one of my best qualities of me as a human, I care. And I reckon that’s probably my biggest weakness, or was my biggest weakness at times – I cared too much of what people thought of me and opinions of myself,” Hynes said.

“I’m just a lover and I want to be loved, you know a bit of a people pleaser … and I reckon that got me in trouble a little.”

Hynes, 29, has worked overtime on that and the man who played his 100th game for the Sharks on Saturday night is more mentally tough and focused than the man who played in Adelaide that night in 2023. Such is the power of Origin, he’s still unable to expand and go into depth on that moment.

“That was really hard … that moment. I won’t share what I really thought about that. I’ll save it for when I write a book or do a documentary when my career is done. It was hard and I’ll have to wait to explain how hard it was.”

Hynes made his NRL debut at the Storm in 2019 as a 23-year-old, and has not forgotten the opportunity given to him by Craig Bellamy. Hynes said he had been shattered by the news of the Storm coach’s recent health diagnosis.

“That actually hit me pretty hard last week.” Hynes said. “I reached out to him and texted him before I found out about the news, just about the team’s performance, and just wanted to check in on him.

“His reply nearly made me tear up … then I understood what it really meant after I heard the news a couple of days later.

“Craig was the first person to believe in me as a rugby league player. I wouldn’t be sitting here right now with you if I didn’t come across Craig Bellamy and the Melbourne Storm.

“He was like a father figure there for me. I don’t forget anything that man’s done for me and that club did for me.

“I have never really had a massive family, and that club felt like family.”

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