BIG-STEVE'S RED & BLACK SITE - 18/9/2004

Please note it was confirmed late on Friday 17/9/2004 that the feeder team will be Melbourne.

BIG-STEVE

Bears Alliance On The Cards
By DAVID ROWLANDS
NORTH SHORE TIMES - 17/9/2004

Short of being re admitted to the NRL then winning that elusive premiership, today (Friday, September 17) could be the happiest day in the North Sydney rugby league club’s post-war existence.

By dusk, the Bears should be basking in wedded bliss, although the identity of their marital partner is not yet clear.

After having their immediate hopes of being resurrected as the Central Coast Bears dashed last month, Norths have decided that to survive as a football enterprise, they have no choice but to forge an alliance with an NRL club.

Doing so will allow them to field a far more competitive Premier League team (the equivalent of the old reserve grade, which Norths are now restricted to, along with the under 20s Jersey Flegg Cup, in which they recently reached the finals).

Better players will be encouraged to join them, knowing there is a pathway to the elite level, un like the existing set-up which has been a dead-end.

By becoming a feeder club, Norths’ senior players will know they could play Premier League one week and be called up to the NRL the following week by the partner club.

It will also allow them to retain more of their promising juniors, who have reluctantly had to go else where over the last five years to further their careers.

After claiming the past three wooden spoons in Premier League, the Bears management has pursued this positive step without altering the primary objective.

“The Central Coast is still where we want to be eventually and we’ll keep working towards that, but what we’re looking for in the short-term is quality players for our Premier League team and this is the best way of doing that,” general manager Greg Florimo said.

After receiving several “attractive proposals; from NRL clubs, the Bears have whittled their options down to two.

The North Shore Times understands one is from Sydney while the other is from out of town.

Their new partner will be decided when the North Sydney football club board meets today.

One thing we can say for sure is Manly are not one of those suitors.

It could never be like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, getting hitched a second time after once divorcing.

Norths are optimistic the new arrangement — while certainly not being classified as an amalgamation like the ill-fated Northern Eagles venture — will be much smoother and fairer, even though they will clearly be the junior partner.
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