Media mogul Kerry Stokes and the Western Australian media are being childish over the Perth Bears
Billionaire media giant Kerry Stokes should immediately hand back his prestigious South Sydney Rabbitohs life membership if he continues to sabotage rugby league’s foray into Perth.
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Billionaire media giant Kerry Stokes should immediately hand back his prestigious South Sydney Rabbitohs life membership if he continues to sabotage rugby league’s foray into Perth.
Stokes and his media cohorts in Australia’s west are behaving like petulant children.
The chairman of the Seven West Media empire, Stokes has essentially blackballed Perth Bears coverage on his Seven television network and only aims to condemn rugby league through his print arm, The West Australian newspaper.
Perth wants to be careful about being seen as a small-minded country town, who cannot accept change, by eastern state sports supporters.
AFL gets a pretty good run in the Sydney media. It’s called being grown up.
Banning coverage of rugby league because your station is the rights holder to AFL – a rival winter sport – is petty and juvenile.
It’s also a clear sign how uneasy Stokes must be about the NRL’s incursion into WA.
And this from a man who was awarded life membership at Souths in 2004 for his significant financial contribution during a challenging era for the club.
Stokes was happy to accept the gong from rugby league back then but now wants to inflict damage on the game. Clearly the honour meant little to Stokes.
If Stokes is seeking to obstruct and vandalise rugby league then he should return his life membership.
Perth’s media resistance shows how paranoid and protective they are over their beloved AFL. Can’t have anyone upsetting the precious AFL now can we?
Stokes cannot seem to accept that WA’s Government gave the NRL a whopping $65m in funding for the Bears to relocate and now the Perth media have taken their bat and ball and gone home.
Said to be worth $12.6 billion, Stokes is among the top ten richest Australians with his Seven network being number one in Perth. He owns the AFL broadcast rights and The West Australian, a newspaper which has been hugely critical of the Bears’ shift into Perth.
This was the same paper which, when Perth Bears were announced as the NRL’s 18th franchise to excited fans, ran a massive front page headline which screamed ‘Bad News Bears’, describing the club as a dud second division team.
How bloody rude, arrogant and disrespectful to a foundation rugby league club.
Yes, Stokes wants to protect his biggest asset, AFL, but they can’t spare rugby league some air and print space?
The NRL doesn’t want to storm Perth in a bloody takeover. We just want a fair and equitable portion of the WA media pie.
Maybe State of Origin in Perth on Wednesday night can mend a few misconceptions about rugby league and show WA punters what a wonderfully exhilarating sport it can be.
Stokes has decided to brush attending Origin II, claiming to be in Sydney on business.
The Perth Bears will need Stokes, no doubt, but rugby league has survived and flourished for 117-years without him.
Stokes’ preferred sport is AFL but he also has a long history with rugby league.
His greatest gesture was a $3m sponsorship over three years with Souths around the start of the century, money which helped the club navigate financial difficulties.
Stokes’ high-profile support also played a pivotal role in Souths’ reinstatement into the NRL, thus his deserved life membership at the time.
“Kerry made a tremendous contribution to the club in its darkest hours, and was a fully deserved recipient of life membership,” said Souths CEO, Blake Solly. “Without Kerry it’s doubtful whether the Rabbitohs would be in existence today.”
Now Stokes appears to have abandoned rugby league.
Rather than excluding Bears’ coverage, maybe Stokes should tell his two AFL teams to lift their performances.
The once mighty West Coast Eagles, who were laughably compared to Manchester United during the 1990s, are running dead last on the AFL ladder, having won one from 14 games this season while Fremantle are faring better with eight victories from 13 matches.
The NRL has attempted to win over the hearts and minds of WA sports fans by appointing the one-and-only Mal Meninga as the franchise’s inaugural coach.
But Meninga and new Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie, a former Seven West Media director of news and current affairs and editor-in-chief of West Australian newspapers, are fully aware of the looming push-back from AFL-loving local media.
“We can’t just go over there and beat our chest and say ‘we’re here’,” Meninga said. “It’s more around building respect.”
I just hope Mal and his team are given the same respect by Seven West Media in return, otherwise rugby league must rid itself of Kerry Stokes.
DOG TREATS
Champion Sydney-based horse trainer Chris Waller has claimed rugby league’s push into New Zealand’s rugby union heartland was “scary.”
Kiwi-born Waller said: “When I was growing up, there was no rugby league at our school and rugby union held centre court. It was pretty strict. If you played rugby league, you couldn’t go back to rugby union.
“(So) it will change, for sure, especially if you’ve got administrators like Peter V’landys involved. It’s a bit scary and the All Blacks had a bit of a loss in terms of their business this year. They will have to change a few things to make sure it’s not losing its dominance.
“Rugby league is portrayed in such a great way. The Kiwis love Australia, they are in awe of Australia – the population, wealth and opportunities. The All Blacks are probably more seasoned – they don’t play as many games so they don’t get the same exposure.”
MERRITT ON THE TOOLS
Former Souths winger Nathan Merritt has started working as a scaffolder.
Merritt, who has recovered from a 2023 serious health scare where he was placed on life support, was spotted on a building site at Concord last week.
One co-worker said: “I couldn’t believe it was him.”
Merritt, 42, scored 154 tries during a 13-year, 237-game career at Souths and Cronulla.
TIGERS DREAM
In a unique situation, Wests Tigers debutant Charlie Murray is managed by a company called Enriched, where Tigers CEO Shane Richardson is a shareholder.
Richardson’s son, Brent, Enriched CEO, said: “I’m Charlie’s agent, not Shane. If you speak to Paul Massey (operations manager for NRL’s Accredited Player Agency Scheme), it will have my name under Charlie’s on the registry.
“He came to Wests Tigers with no guarantees and no real contract. Charlie’s dream was to play NRL. He’s a great kid, a hard trainer who puts the club first.
“Shane doesn’t manage anyone in the business.”
Brent admitted the player-son-CEO relationship was “quirky”.
MID-SEASON MADNESS
Which two well-known players from a Sydney club are tipped to be moved on before June 30. One isn’t a shock, the other will be contentious.
RAIDERS MENTORS
Is there a better club when it comes to developing and educating coaches than Canberra? Check out this list of current coaches who have, at some point, shifted through the Raiders system.
Mal Meninga (Perth), Laurie Daley (NSW), Michael Maguire (Broncos), Craig Bellamy (Storm), Anthony Seibold (Manly), Todd Payten (Cowboys), Wayne Bennett (Souths) and, of course, the one-and-only Ricky Stuart.
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