Perth Bears or Bears Perth, what’s in a name? Plenty, for anyone Googling the new NRL franchise

WA Premier Roger Cook announcing the Perth Bears will join the NRL. Picture: Getty Images

The bubbles and froth surrounding the NRL’s return to WA has caused a few headaches for a long-established Perth club for gay men, and which is now at pains to distance itself from rugby league.

There’s a bit of a frenzy around Perth circles about the return of professional rugby league to the state in 2027, through the newly announced establishment of the Perth Bears.

Former Canberra coach Mal Meninga is said to be interested in the top job at the club, Wallabies star Billy Pollard is reportedly considering a switch back from union, and old-school North Sydney Bears fans are reluctantly pondering the cost of flying across the country for home games.

But it’s also caused a little confusion in the ranks in the west, due to the name’s similarity to that of long-established local social club Bears Perth, which pops up on a first page of a search for the nascent rugby league outfit.

And clicking through to the Instagram page does, indeed, yield plenty of pictures of burly gentlemen in various states of repose.

Except that Bears Perth was established in 1993 as a social club for blokes who fancy blokes of the hirsute variety. It is not, in fact, the place to go to buy your founding rugby league membership.

Adding to the potential confusion is the fact that Bears Perth holds many of its social events at a tennis club just next door to HBF Park, where the Perth Bears will be crashing into burly gentlemen from interstate in only a few short years. We’re sure the good folks of Perth will sort it all out in time, however.

But in the interim, the Bears Perth membership page now includes a large disclaimer distancing the club from the NRL.

“We are NOT associated with the newly announced NRL club called ‘Perth Bears’. Please do not sign up for membership if you are here to join the rugby club,” it says.

At only $25 a year for Bears Perth membership, you’d imagine the pricing would be a bit of a clue you were in the wrong place, but you never can tell.