Western Force attempting to sign Jordan Petaia to combat NRL’s Perth Bears invasion
South Africans will gather in their thousands in Perth to cheer the downfall of the Wallabies on Saturday. But they’ll play a crucial role in ensuring Australian rugby survives the challenge from the NRL’s new WA team - and the Force are staring down their rival.
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AS if Australian rugby didn’t have enough competition for support, the NRL’s looming announcement that their 18th team will be the Perth-based Western Bears from 2027 has put the Western Force in a major fight.
But their bid to grow their base and success is starting with a bid to take on another code, the NFL, for the services of Wallabies star Jordan Petaia.
The 24-year-old off-contract Queenslander is weighing up a shock switch to the NFL, like former Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit who has joined the Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs.
But the Force are hoping he’ll stay in Australian rugby and head west.
It’s already being reported that the West Australian government will spend $300 million to upgrade the 20,500 capacity HBF Park – home of the Force – to accommodate the new NRL Bears team.
Ironically, the news of the NRL’s move comes in the same week the Wallabies host South Africa in Perth, on Saturday.
For the first time, Perth will have professional rugby and league teams going head-to-head from 2027, and a strong Force rosters is essential to retaining fans and rising players, which is why their head coach Simon Cron is already on the case.
“We are definitely looking for back three players, and Jordie Petaia is a good kid and would be an obvious target for people,” Cron told this masthead.
“Because you don’t want him going to the NFL or whatever the hell they’re talking about, keep him in the game.
“I would’ve liked to have got Marky Mark [Nawaqanitawase] too but he’s gone [to NRL club Sydney Roosters].
“If you look at Jordie – and this is something we have to do – you have to look at the upside, what level of talent can that player show if he plays his best?
“Jordie can be anything, so when you’re coaching them you end up with a guy who can be a nine-and-a half out of 10, or 10 out of 10.”
With Bayley Kuenzle injured in club rugby a few weeks ago and requiring a full knee reconstruction that will see him likely miss much of next season, Cron is looking far and wide and even considering a former All Black.
Shaun Stevenson, who is also rumoured to be in talks with NRL club New Zealand Warriors, has been linked to the Force.
“I’d like that to happen, but I think there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge,” Cron said.
“It’s amazing how many names we’ve gone through and looked at, or tried to get, but we definitely need some back three players at the moment, it’s an area we’re working on.”
Thousands of South Africans will gather at Optus Stadium on Saturday hoping the Springboks will smash the Wallabies again. But they will also be crucial in Australian rugby’s battle against the NRL invasion.
The Force, who were kicked out of Super Rugby in 2017 only to return in 2020 with the backing of billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, have one natural advantage in retaining their supporter base despite the challenge from the Bears.
“We’ve got a lot of parochial WA rugby supporters, the Sea Of Blue they call them,” Cron said.
“The thing I do notice is that our community is made up of South Africans, Kiwis and Australians, it is quite a multicultural society. Even in Brisbane you saw how many South African fans there were, I’d suggest this week there’ll be even more.
“Even coaching, I run into a lot of South Africans, Kiwis and Australians. It’s the make-up of our community, which also makes it challenging to ensure our players are qualified to play for Australia.”
But what is clear is that the threat of the NRL isn’t going away, and for the state of Australian rugby, the Force must retain the best young talent in Perth that inevitably will be targeted by Bears scouts over the coming two years.
“It’s happening everywhere, if you look at the league scouts, they’ve always been at every rugby schoolboys ground, every age group program, they really do invest an enormous amount of money in that age group category,” Cron said.
“They don’t mind if they spend a bit of more and don’t get as many coming through – they’ll invest in 10, and if one gets through they’re OK with it.
“I don’t think that’s too dissimilar to what’s happening already, it’s just a little bit closer to the doorstep for us.
“I know that in New Zealand it’s very similar too, a lot of boys who are 14, 15, 16, getting rugby league contracts and being taken to camps. They just get a T-shirt and train, and it really is a massive sprinkler approach to recruitment, that’s just how they’re working.”
But, Cron pointed out, an NRL team in Perth could also have an unplanned benefit for the Force.
“It can go the other way and grow it, I haven’t thought too much about where it sits and what it does, but there are lot of players here who are league and rugby, it might help with pathways and taking some of those AFL players out,” Cron said.
“AFL is the dominant sport in this state, and the most well-funded, and there’s a lot of talent here that play both rugby and league.
“Now rugby and rugby league is much more transferable than AFL to rugby or league, so I’m not sure what it’s going to do, but all we’ve got to do is provide a program that people want to be in.
“One of the big things we’ve been working on in the past two years is pathways, so guys can go through 16s, 18s, 19s.
“There is a lot of talent. We’ve got to make it so that talent remains in the pathways and in the game, and we’ve got a lot of work to do on that.”
Originally published as Western Force attempting to sign Jordan Petaia to combat NRL’s Perth Bears invasion
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