North Sydney Bears fans have had it tougher than any league fan in the last five years. They lost their NRL team. They then had to deal with the merger (takeover) with Manly, and after that ended, they have been teased into thinking that their team could return, only to be disappointed again. This off-season has been no different.
Firstly, the Central Coast Bears application was again rejected by the NRL. And backer John Singleton has now appeared to have lost the hunger to try again. Considering each campaign has cost him a couple of hundred grand, it’s hard to blame him. But that’s no comfort to Bears fans who’d like to see Singo fight on, as bras they are concerned, the only reason he got sold those stadium rights was to get the Bears back!
Shortly after that, Jim Henry’s North Sydney Leagues club announced that it would halve it’s annual funding to the football club. The club was already barely getting by before. This was a near fatal blow. The Leagues club has continued to cutback it’s commitment to the football team since 1999 a time when they chose to renovate the club rather than save the football team from the .short term financial trouble that saw them forced into a unhappy merger with the Manly Sea Eagles.
In my opinion, I think that Henry and his leagues club board eventually want to rid themselves of the team altogether The ‘de footballisation’ of the team has been going on for quite some time now. Football memorabilia has been relegated to the back corridors of the club, in what is at best, a token gesture.
Unfortunately, the soul of the leagues club now seems to have gone. They will not kill the club though. People like Greg Florimo and football club president Mike Gibbons are too proud to let that happen!
Despite all this, and even suggestions that Souths may re-locate to North Sydney Oval the Bears are competing in the Premier League this year, along with the other junior competitions. They have formed a feeder relationship with the Melbourne Storm and have signed former New Zealand national coach Gary Freeman to guide the side. The addition of players from the storm squad means that a semi-final birth is a definite possibility.