By ANDREW WEBSTER
THE SUN-HERALD - 22/5/2005
BEARING UP: Former star player and now North Sydney Bears official Greg Florimo in his heyday with the foundation club. Picture: TIM CLAYTON
Foundation club North Sydney will take legal action against the NRL if it is not reincarnated on the Central Coast as the game’s 16th franchise. With the NRL’s partnership committee tipped to finally hand down a verdict on Friday about whether the league will admit a new team in 2007, furious Bears officials are fearing the worst-kept secret in the game will be let out of the bag: that a licence will be given to the Gold Coast
The committee will meet in Sydney - not the Gold Coast as rumoured - on the same day the Bulldogs play the Cowboys at Carrara Stadium.
North Sydney president Mike Gibbons said he was expecting what the press has been saying for months: that the Gold Coast being admitted is a fait accompli and that a back- room deal has already been done.
He said the decision will kill the Bears, who have been left out in the cold since the failed merger with the Northern Eagles and after going into voluntary administration in 1999.
“They will put the Gold Coast in,” he admitted. “And it is the wrong decision. [chief executive] David Gallop said to my face that there is no decision on 16 teams. He said it hadn’t been decided and there is no guarantee of any team coming in. He’s given me a letter saying that. They’re going to destroy us?’
Asked if the Bears would launch legal action as a result, Gibbons said: “Absolutely”.
‘We were all told in July last year that they would assess it again in a year. It was just a chance to give the Gold Coast more time to improve their bid?’
Gallop last night hit back at the legal threat, saying suggestions that the NRL had done a backroom deal with the Gold Coast were odious.
“We reject that absolutely” he said. “I’m surprised that he would be making legal threats at this point in the process, especially after we recently met with the backers of the Central Coast bid.
“Any criticism of the process is totally unjustified. Beyond that, I’m not sure what he seeks to gain out of this?’
Gallop met with businessman John Singleton’s business associate Russell Tate two weeks ago to discuss the Central Coast bid.
Gibbons said that Gallop had told him in a private discussion that the Central Coast’s main obstacle was self-interest from rival Sydney clubs.
“Gallop told me that the other CEOs are shit scared about a Central Coast Bears team — a powerhouse team — being so close to Sydney” he said.
But the Bears also have opponents from within. North Sydney Leagues Club has said it would not provide funding to any club based on the Central Coast. North Sydney currently fields teams in Premier League and junior grades.
Gallop refused to say if a decision would be made on Friday.