With the Perth Bears set to play their first game in 20 months’ time, Michael Chammas caught up with the club’s chief executive Anthony De Ceglie to ask him the burning questions about the NRL’s newest team.
Sitting in the stands at North Sydney Oval last week, De Ceglie addressed criticism of his appointment, a smear campaign being run by his old employer Seven West Media and why North Sydney will play a significant part in the future of the organisation.
Michael Chammas interviewing Perth Bears chief executive Anthony De Ceglie.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Chammas: Let’s start with the obvious question, why did you take on this job?
De Ceglie: At the end of the day for me, I’m 39-years-old and the chance to start a national sporting franchise in my home town was such an exciting proposition and opportunity. I was saying to someone the other day, it’s a start-up, right? This is basically like building it out of your garage. So the idea of being there from the ground floor with a blank sheet of paper, was just an exhilarating opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.
Chammas: When did you start having the conversations with Peter V’landys and the NRL?
De Ceglie: Oh mate, only a few weeks before. There’s been a story about a wedding we were at and talking about the Perth Bears. That’s legitimate. That’s when it occurred to me that maybe I should put my hand up for it. I’ve just been home to Perth for Easter and it was clear to me that my family missed Perth. My kids are just better kids when they’re in Perth surrounded by their grandparents. That’s when I started to think about it seriously.
Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie at North Sydney Oval.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Chammas: There’s not long between now and the first game of the Perth Bears. You have 20 months. How much work is there to be done?
De Ceglie: Mountains. A lot of work, but I crave hard work. I love hard work. I think [Bears’ coach] Mal [Meninga] likes hard work. Everyone that we will get around us will be the sort of people that love and crave hard work and are passionate about it. We’ll be working around the clock to make sure it’s a success.
Chammas: You mentioned Mal. There’s a lot of external criticism of him not having had club experience for such a long time. His representative coaching resume speaks for itself, but he hasn’t coached in the NRL for a quarter of a century. What homework did you do before his appointment to make sure he’s the right man for the job?
De Ceglie: Like any sport fan I know a lot about Mal from growing up and watching him play. Even in Perth Mal Meninga can’t walk down the street without everyone knowing who he is. Like any ex-journo, I did a lot of research. I think to be fair to Mal, his club record is above 50 per cent. I think people forgot that. Then his time at the Kangaroos and the Maroons – that record speaks for itself. I’m very confident that he is the right person to lead the club and set the culture of the club. I think that’s really important. One of Mal’s job as the inaugural coach is to set up the value system for the Bears. He sees it as a torch bearer kind of role to then handover. It’s that great groundwork around leadership and what we stand for and what we play for that no one could do better than him.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo with Bears coach Mal Meninga and CEO Anthony De Ceglie.Credit: Getty Images
Chammas: We’re sitting here at North Sydney Oval. What do you know about the North Sydney Bears? How big of a role will North Sydney play in the Perth Bears?
De Ceglie: I think there is no doubt that my most important first job is to make sure we respect, pay homage to and take the North Sydney Bears fans and community with us on this journey. It’s a foundation club. I’ve been blown away by how many North Sydney Bears diehards have reached out to me excited, passionate and wanting to take the journey.
At the same time, don’t forget there is a team of passionate and proud league fans in Perth who have been fighting for decades for the same thing. They’ve been burning the candle for a long time. On either side of the country, you have these two very passionate supporter groups who just want to be unified. It’s a really powerful and unique thing to have. My No.1 role is listening, learning and paying respect to those communities to set up a good marriage.
Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie has called on the government to invest in North Sydney Oval.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Chammas: So tell me, are we going to see an NRL game at North Sydney Oval in the near future?
De Ceglie: I think anything is on the table. North Sydney Oval is such a beautiful, historic, landmark ground. It’s perfectly situated in the second CBD of Sydney right next to a brand new Metro station. Something will happen here. It’ll definitely be part of the future and part of the history of us paying homage to the North Sydney Bears. I’d love an upgrade of it. I think if the state and federal governments come together to do a proper upgrade, I think the entire sporting community of NSW would welcome it and benefit from that. I think it’s a no-brainer. I can’t believe the Albanese government and the Minns government aren’t already talking about it, especially when there’s a brand new Metro down the road.
Chammas: Do you think the people of Perth will embrace this team when there is a feeling that it’s a Sydney team being relocated to Perth. How will the locals take that?
De Ceglie: I think the most important thing to remember is that the Perth fans and North Sydney fans are pretty similar because they’ve both been treated pretty ruthlessly. They were in the league then out of the league. What I’ve found so far listening to both sides of the country is that they’re parochial, they have a chip on their shoulder and they want to get back into the NRL and prove something. I think there are a lot of similarities we can work on so that they feel collegiate.
The North Sydney Bears fans after the announcement of the Perth team.Credit: Steven Siewert
Chammas: It doesn’t look like they’re going to roll out the welcome mat for you or the Bears. There’s been a lot of criticism of you from West Australian media. You come from a media background having worked at News Corp and Seven. And, whether you like it or not, it is an AFL town. We’ve seen already that there is this view that ‘you’re coming into our territory’. How do you handle that because it looks like it’s going to get heated.
De Ceglie: It’s ironic if I was to get upset by criticism. I’ve been the editor of a tabloid newspaper and been in the media game for a long time. I learnt a long time ago to ignore the noise. You can’t let external voices impact your own internal measure of success. My No.1 philosophy is to ignore the noise. And I’m never going to make public the criticism of others. They’ve got every right to say what they want.
All I know is that I’ve been absolutely blown away by the interest I’ve had from people in Perth who can’t wait to get involved in this. That’s everything from corporate sponsors to fans, to people wanting jobs. I reckon every hour I get a job application from someone in Perth wanting to be involved in the Perth Bears. We’ve got sponsors who want to pay us in 2026 so they can get in first for 2027. I’m very, very optimistic and confident.
I’m very confident that we will very quickly become a commercial giant in the NRL. There’s a lot of talk about Perth being an AFL town, but really what Perth is, is a sports town. I don’t think it’s a mutually exclusive opportunity. It’s not like if you’re an AFL fan you can’t be an NRL fan. You can be both.
Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie at North Sydney Oval.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Chammas: What about this narrative that A, you know nothing about rugby league and B, you don’t have the connections that maybe the NRL think you do in WA?
De Ceglie: At the end of the day, the beautiful thing about sport is that every weekend you get a public report card. We’ll just have to let our performance tell its own story. In terms of myself, as you would know as a journalist, you’re going to accumulate some people along the way who aren’t always happy with you. I think that’s just part and parcel of the job.
Chammas: What about your lack of rugby league knowledge? Do you hide away from the fact you aren’t a rugby league guru or do you own that?
De Ceglie: I’m a passionate NRL advocate. I fell in love with the game when I was at The Daily Telegraph as deputy editor. I think in those roles you become really good across a whole lot of things but not being an expert in any one thing because of how much juggling of topics and issues is involved. I’m not going to pretend that I can write the almanac of the NRL. But I know I will work hard, listen, study, do my research and maybe one day I can. I may not be an absolute guru of the NRL but I’m very passionate about the code.
Chammas: You’re five months away from being able to sign a player. Who can those marquee signings be? What are Mal’s primary targets come November 1?
De Ceglie:I’m not going to pre-empt what Mal is thinking or looking at. That’s not my role. I will have a part to play in all of that and work alongside Mal, but I’m not getting into the specifics, sorry.
Chammas: Payne Haas? Tino Fa’asuamaleaui? Someone?
De Ceglie: Look we’re going to need some marquees. We’re a start-up franchise so we need marquee heroes to sell to the public. But just as importantly we need a good spine and a good group of young people to build the club around.
Chammas: What about the view that this is the NRL’s club? That the NRL will own and run the club on the eastern seaboard and you’ll take care of organisational matters. Whether that’s the reality or not, there will be a perception that this is the NRL’s team. What is the truth of it?
De Ceglie: Anyone who is in clubland will tell you it’s impossible for the NRL to be running a club. There are so many tasks at hand that the NRL wouldn’t have the capacity to run it. Pretty soon we’ll be over in Perth which can feel like foreign territory. Distance will mean that idea is a complete fallacy. We’ll stand on our own two feet.
