The NRL must contend with Kerry Stokes and his media empire to appeal to rugby league fans in Western Australia

Channel 7 dominates the West Australian media market, and their coverage of the unveiling of Mal Meninga as the inaugural Perth Bears coach has revealed that the code’s newest club faces a major obstacle.

The NRL’s official unveiling of Mal Meninga as the inaugural Perth Bears coach has revealed the extraordinary challenges facing the code to win over Western Australia.

Meninga’s appointment, a monumental moment for the game, took a sour turn on Friday, triggering renewed fears that the NRL face a mammoth task to mend relations with Seven West Media billionaire, Kerry Stokes.

This masthead has learned that a reporter and camera crew from the Seven network in Sydney, who attended Meninga’s press conference at NRL HQ at Moore Park, were instructed to leave recently appointed Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie out of every camera angle that they recorded from the media call.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo, Meninga and De Ceglie were available for questions from the media throughout the 17-minute press conference.

The image that West Australian league fans were not allowed to see: (L-R) Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie shakes hands with new coach Mal Meninga.

In a crowded media scrum gathered inside NRL HQ, some members of the media could overhear Seven reporter Andrew McKinlay and his camera operator being instructed to frame De Ceglie out of the shot.

In addition to avoiding any vision of De Ceglie, McKinlay, an experienced and respected veteran of sports reporting in Sydney, appeared to only ask questions that made no reference to the new franchise, the return of rugby league in Perth or the Bears.

Each of McKinlay’s questions revolved around Meninga’s replacement as the Australian Test coach, which he will step away from as a result of his appointment as the new Bears coach.

A Seven spokesperson denied there was a directive from management to avoid including De Ceglie.

De Ceglie did not appear in the network’s coverage of the appointment during its 6pm bulletin in Sydney, although he was featured briefly on screen in an online version of the story

It’s not clear whether Seven’s intended coverage of the major announcement was made due to De Ceglie’s recent defection from Stokes to take over running of the NRL’s 18th team in 2027.

The West Australian’s front page last month.

De Ceglie is the former editor-in-chief of The West Australian newspaper, a major arm of Stokes’ media empire, which also includes Seven West Media.

It was the West Australian newspaper, which splashed with ‘The Bad News Bears’ as their page one headline last month.

Many were quick to point to the newspaper being owned by Seven West Media and therefore its obvious allegiance to the AFL.

Seven inked a blockbuster broadcast rights deal, alongside Foxtel, with the AFL from 2025 to 2031 in a massive $4.5 billion deal.

De Ceglie addressed how he intended to combat his detractors from the West Australian on Friday.

“I think the West Australian is doing what all good tabloid newspapers should do, which is create provocative front pages that get people talking,’’ De Ceglie said.

“At the end of the day, it will be up to the Perth Bears to earn the respect of the daily newspaper and earn the respect of the sports pages, so that the Perth Bears deserve to be alongside the coverage of their AFL.

“If we’re a success on the field and we’re a success off the field, then we should be on those sports pages and if we’re not, the only people missing out will be the readers of the newspaper.

“Normally if you’re doing something right, you have a few critics along the way.

“I’ve long thought that you have to ignore the noise, you can’t let external voices be a measure of internal markers of success.

“All I know is that I’ve been totally blown away by the messages that I’ve had that want to get involved in the Perth Bears.

“That’s everything from sponsors, to fans to people wanting a job.

“So I’m very optimistic that this will be a huge success.’’

The publication welcomed the Perth Bears announcement by calling them ‘NRL rejects’ under the headline.