Western Bears

[4] Western Australia had indicated they were always prepared to go it alone and resurrect the previous Reds moniker in an effort to get a team back in the top-tier competition.

[6][7] In October 2024, the Australian Rugby League Commission rejected the Western Bears consortium proposal stating the $20 million bid fell short of its expectations.

[8][9] In November 2024, the NRL announced it could soon officially declare the Perth Bears as the competition’s 18th team following urgent talks between ARLC chairman Peter V’landys and the WA government.

Despite the NRL knocking back a Perth-based consortium’s proposal the previous month for falling short of the financial requirements, the NRL held constructive talks with the West Australian government about an expansion team in Perth[10] The team's primary colours intend to be the traditional red and black of North Sydney, with white being the club's secondary colour since the 1992 NSWRL season.

The proposal is for the stadium to be used not only for league purposes as a home base, but shared with soccer’s Perth Glory and rugby union’s Western Force.

[16] The WA Government have strongly and financially backed this team and could have had the potential to have a support base of over 200,000 fans both in Western Australia and across the North Shore of Sydney and surrounds.

Perth has large expat English and South African populations that can be expected to find rugby league more appealing than Australian rules football.