NRL news, expansion: Laurie Puddy ramps up bid for Western Reds to return to top grade
NRL expansion is a matter of when not if, and the location for the 18th team appears locked in with big money from out west making an inexorable case for Perth.
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Perth’s inevitable and powerful push for NRL admission has formally started with an ambitious bid team revealing it could be ready for inclusion by 2024.
It comes 24 years after the Perth-based Western Reds’ sudden demise and just a week after the Redcliffe-based Dolphins were admitted as the NRL’s 17th franchise.
News Corp can reveal WA bid boss, Laurie Puddy, the inaugural Reds chairman, has met ARLC chairman Peter V’landys about Perth becoming the NRL’s 18th franchise.
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“It’s a no-brainer,” said former Reds marquee signing, Mark Geyer.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Puddy outlined how and why Perth should be rugby league’s next expansion franchise.
WHY PERTH
Puddy claimed the team would be known as the Western Reds and play at HBF Stadium, previously known as Perth Oval, and home of the Perth Glory A-League side, while blockbusters could be moved to the 60,000-seat Optus Stadium. He even predicted his club would attract home crowds of 20,000.
“The only thing that has changed since the Western Reds is the desire from the NRL to say: ‘Let’s do Perth again’. I can’t understand why the hierarchy doesn’t see it,” he said. “It would make it a national competition and the two-hour time change makes sense for broadcasters.
“Souths go over there on a regular basis. Manly, Canterbury. They know the crowds they can pull – 20,000-plus. They get 5000 to 10,000 more people at Perth than they would do at a home game.
“Back in 1995, the population of WA was about 1.3 million. The population of Perth today is nearly three million.
“We had 24,000 people at our first game (in 1995) and averaged around 15,400 thereafter, and that was playing at the WACA, which is a cricket ground.
“I have business contacts and colleagues sitting in Perth waiting for something to happen. All they say is: “Laurie, when is it going to happen?’ Support for the game isn’t in question. Why wouldn’t Perth be a success? We have done it before.
“Some experts are talking about playing in places like PNG. That’s offensive.
“If we couldn’t get 20,000 a game then I’m a bad judge. Back in 1994-95, we were inundated with support from sponsors.
“I have had a meeting with Peter (V’landys). There was nothing to come of it, although we agreed to meet again. That hasn’t transpired yet with Covid and, of course, he has had his hands full. I respect that.
“What we have to do first is get in front of Peter again and Andrew (Abdo, NRL CEO) and have a serious discussion about Western Australia.”
ADMISSION DATE
Puddy was adamant he and his bid team could build the entire club inside two years.
“It would take us two years,” he said. “It took us two years last time and it would take us two years again. You’d want (entry) in 2024.
“I would drive it (the bid) but you might find there are other people in Perth who would want to have a crack too. The answer is we need to get a team into Perth.
“I’ve talked to the WA Government and they would open their arms to us and help in any way to get us back and get us a ground. They would talk to us about how we could develop our own high performance centre.
“I was at the (2018) State of Origin in Perth, there were 60,000 people there. And you know the thing that amazed me?
“The amount of people walking into the ground wearing Western Reds gear. It was amazing. That should tell the hierarchy that there is a demand for rugby league at that level in Perth.
“Why would you want to change (the Reds name)? Why come up with another name when the people in Perth still relate to the Reds?”
Pressed on whether a club could be ready and accepted by 2024, Puddy said: “Absolutely, absolutely.”
BRING IT ON: MG
Geyer was the king of Perth during the Western Reds tenure. He now wants rugby league to head west again.
“I’m biased but it’s a no-brainer,” Geyer said. “If you want it to be a truly National Rugby League then we have to be national.
“We can’t just be up the eastern seaboard. Now is the time to strike. Let’s delve into this. I think it would be mega if they did it, it would be awesome.
“They’ve got (businessman) ‘Twiggy’ Forrest over there. He loves his sport. They need a code over there other than AFL. I have had thousands of messages from people from Perth saying: ‘C’mon, think about us’.
“The difference in time is good as well for television, that’s a big tick so let’s go to Perth. It’s time to go back, it’s the Reds baby, let’s go. I dare say if Super League didn’t come along then we’d still be there.”
PAST HISTORY
The Reds’ death came after Super League and the ARL merged clubs into a 20-team competition known as the NRL. Perth officials felt they were victims of a war out of their control.
“We have to clear up some misconceptions – the Western Reds didn’t fail,” Puddy said. “People have been quick to say the Reds failed. The Reds were caught up in a war between News Ltd and the ARL. We need to clear up the history.
“Some of the critics are of the belief that Perth failed. They didn’t fail at all.
“We had to pay not only for our teams to travel, feed them and accommodation, but we also had to pay for the teams coming to Perth. We flew all the teams in – paid for everything — and we still didn’t go broke.
“We had a viable business. The first year we were one game out of the eight.
“We built a team in two years and brought them in from everywhere – England, New Zealand, Europe. It wasn’t a five-minute exercise.
“We were happy with the way it was going and it was going to be a success story. John Ribot was in control of the Storm at that stage and he took about five or six of our best players to Melbourne. We were doing very well until the war came along.”
NRL RESPONSE
While noncommittal, Abdo did concede Perth could be an option if the NRL expanded to 18 clubs.
“In the long-term, if there was further expansion, the ARLC would consider all options – from Western Australia to New Zealand and the Pacific,” Abdo said. “There are so many opportunities. Why would you want to exclude anywhere?
“We’ve also indicated to both the Firehawks and the Jets that the ARLC remains open to reconsidering their bids in the future.
“Our focus for now is making sure we have a successful move to 17 teams in 2023, across all aspects, football, commercial and participation. The consideration of a move to 18 teams would be a strategic long-term one for the ARLC in the future.
“Right now our priority is ensuring the successful expansion of the NRLW to six teams and the NRL to 17 teams.”
AFL TIDAL WAVE
Puddy was irritated when told rugby league would struggle to compete for fans and the corporate dollar in an AFL-mad city.
“That’s rubbish,” he said. “The fans follow their AFL sides but when you look at the population in Perth, and see where they come from, there is a desire for rugby league — and we have to give it to them.
“Why do we have success when we go and play State of Origin in Perth? Or Souths games? They don’t take the fans with them. They happen to be there.
“As I said to Peter V’landys, in 1995-96, we had the third-biggest selling merchandise in the whole bloody competition.
“It (junior participation) isn’t as good as it could be. We had development officers going around to all the schools and we could do that again. In fact, it’s already been suggested we should start that again next year. The colleges still play rugby union in Perth.
“I really can’t see too much of a downside.”
Geyer added: “Perth is ready – let’s go back.”
What it really means to be face of new NRL franchise
— Nick Walshaw
Mark Geyer can warn Dolphins recruits about the ‘God Complex’.
Or explain to them how losing even consecutive games at a new franchise, it brings “demons knocking on your door”.
But as for the greatest drama this cult enforcer confronted when, way back in 1995, he was made the face of those mighty Western Reds?
“It was a billboard,” he says.
A billboard?
“As soon as you exited Perth airport, there I was,” Geyer recalls.
“This giant picture of me, arms folded, and dressed in a singlet, right next to the words ‘We’re Ready For You’ …”
Which all sounds like a bit of fun, right?
Apparently though, it wasn’t.
“Because every bloke in Perth decided to take that slogan literally,” Geyer cackles.
“First time I’m out for a beer, I hear somebody say ‘hey, there’s that bloke from the f … ing billboard’.
“Then next minute, it’s on.
“For a while there, somebody wanted to fight me every time I went out.”
Which if nothing else, taught a few locals about the glorious intensity of 1990s rugby league.
“They even called us ‘easties’,” Geyer continues of his first weeks as a Red alongside the likes of Brad Mackay, Mick Potter and Matthew Rodwell.
“My whole life I’d been a Sydney westie. Yet now I had blokes saying ‘look at you, ya f … ing eastie’. But of course, great perks too.
“Free drinks, free food, I even got a new Ford with that bright red kangaroo splashed across the front. So I was hard to miss.
“But it was incredible. Suddenly you’ve got this exciting, new thing in your life. I was 26 thinking ‘wow, how good is this?’.”
Which is wonderful news for, say, Cameron Munster. Same deal Harry Grant, Kalyn Ponga and those dozen other NRL stars now being linked to rugby league’s 17th team.
But what does it really mean to be the face of a new NRL franchise?
“Being part of a shiny new toy, it’s exciting,” says Scott Sattler, who not only watched dad John build the Gold Coast Giants, or played himself for the inaugural South Queensland Crushers, but most recently has been working closely with the Brisbane Jets franchise bid.
Which makes this 2003 premiership hero something of an expert when it comes to what new Dolphins can expect.
“And for marquee player, this will be an incredible opportunity to expand their brand,” Sattler says. “With only one other team in Brisbane, the city really is wide open to attack.
“Importantly for senior players too, they’ll also get a say in establishing the values and principles of this new club for years to come.
“While even for fringe players, this is your opportunity to become an NRL starter.”
That, and create history.
“Because you’re always going to be the player who was part of that first Dolphins team,” Geyer says.
Of course, there are cons, too.
Take the God Complex.
“Or players thinking they run the town,” Sattler says. “That’s something you have to be really wary of in expansion teams.”
Geyer agrees, adding “in some ways that happened to us in Perth”.
But the greatest issue, both agree, is the need for immediate success.
Indeed, during the bid process for a 17th team, one of the key topics discussed by NRL officials was the need to be competitive immediately.
“Which is really difficult to achieve,” Sattler warns.
“You’re bringing in over 30 players from different clubs, different cultures, different training facilities, all of that, and you need to get everyone going in the same direction.”
Says Geyer: “You have to win, that’s it.
“Everything is about winning.
“But the great conundrum is that winning usually comes over time.
“So you can go get the 20 best blokes on the market, but for whatever reason they don’t gel. You can have Munster, Ponga, Harry Grant, Christian Welch, but if you start losing … that’s when demons will start knocking on your door.”
But still, Geyer reckons he would be all in.
“Because to be one of those first Dolphins, incredible,” he says. “New club, Wayne Bennett as coach, it’s all such a great opportunity.”
Just be sure, MG says, to keep off those airport billboards.
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