NRL

Former Melbourne Storm star Ryan Papenhuyzen has delivered a scathing assessment of the Perth Bears’ prospects, questioning whether the expansion club has been given a fair chance to compete with the financial advantages available to the PNG Chiefs.

Perth will enter the NRL in 2027, a year before PNG, but concerns have already emerged over the strength of its inaugural roster after struggling to attract the marquee talent many expected.

Those concerns have intensified as the Chiefs have assembled a star-studded roster for 2028, aided by government-backed tax incentives that can significantly increase the value of contracts compared with those offered by Australian clubs.

Speaking on Triple M’s The Rush Hour with JB & Billy, Papenhuyzen admitted he fears Perth has been handed a significant disadvantage.

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«Perth are next year, I’m not very optimistic about it. They’ve got the short end of the stick,» Papenhuyzen said.

«It would have been hard to recruit especially with the announcement of PNG and the roster they’re building. I want to be positive about it but the reality of it is that I’m not.» Papenhuyzen continued.

PNG has already secured stars including Jarome Luai, Brian To’o, Zac Lomax, Alex Johnston and Connor Watson, while Perth’s recruitment has failed to produce a comparable collection of players with representative honours.

The disparity has fuelled criticism over the NRL’s handling of expansion, with coaches including Trent Robinson, Ivan Cleary and Wayne Bennett among those to question the competitive advantage created by PNG’s tax incentives.

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The NRL eventually provided Perth with additional recruitment concessions, including a 20 per cent third-party allowance for a marquee player and priority access to certain contracted players seeking releases, but those measures only arrived in August after the Bears had already spent months building their roster and just months before their first pre-season.

The changes followed growing concerns over the inequality between the two expansion clubs, leaving Perth to initially enter the player market without the additional recruitment tools later introduced to help level the playing field.

Papenhuyzen acknowledged PNG’s significant financial advantage but suggested Perth still has selling points players may be overlooking, admitting the choice would not necessarily have been a foregone conclusion for him if he was still playing in the NRL.

«You look at the trade-off; living in PNG you’re living in a compound, and you come back every now and then,» Papenhuyzen said.

«They’ve got a really good roster, and the money would be good. But in Perth… I’m lucky enough to be coached by Mal Meninga, and he’s a great coach and he understands it. He has fun at the forefront, but I don’t know if anyone is looking at that side of things. You’re in good hands if you go there.»

While Perth’s ability to compete will ultimately be determined on the field, Papenhuyzen’s comments add another prominent voice to the growing debate over whether the NRL has given its two newest clubs anything resembling an equal opportunity to succeed.

In major sporting leagues around the world, expansion is typically backed by years of planning designed to give new clubs every opportunity to succeed from day one.

The NRL’s approach has instead too often resembled policy on the run, particularly in its attempts to address the growing disparity between Perth and PNG, and when results finally matter on the field, that lack of foresight could prove costly.

NRL

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