Dolphins star lifts lid on retirement amid tears for proudest moment<\/a><\/p>\n‘Dogs can win focusing on defence’ | 02:16<\/p>\n
HOW PERTH MEDIA WILL RESPOND TO THE BEARS<\/p>\n
When the Bears were announced as the NRL\u2019s next expansion team, the reaction from the WA media was slammed by those on the east coast.<\/p>\n
On the morning of the official announcement, The West Australian newspaper ran a front-page headline which read \u201cBad News Bears\u201d <\/p>\n
Additionally, in the build up to an Origin fixture in Perth last year, The West Australian essentially snubbed the massive showdown in their sports section. <\/p>\n
At the time, Peter V\u2019landys hit back at the WA media, calling it biased, before issuing a warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main newspaper here is owned by Seven West Media, that has the AFL rights,\u201d V\u2019landys said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be quite frank, they don\u2019t want us to be here, because they realise we\u2019re going to be competitive and we\u2019re going to take some of their lunch \u2013 and we eat a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Ran over Ponga like he was roadkill’ | 02:11<\/p>\n
NRL360 host Braith Anasta asked De Ceglie, who was previously the director of news at Seven and the editor of West Australian newspapers, how the Perth media landscape will support the Bears.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that the two biggest sporting teams in {erth are the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers but I like to remind people that it\u2019s not so much an AFL town as it is a sports town. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Perth Scorchers (Big Bash) are massive over here, the Wildcats in the NBL are massive and when the Perth Glory are winning in the A-League, they are massive as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often joke that when it comes to Perth, we\u2019re such sporting fans, that people would show up to a game of hand tennis if it was at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confident the crowds will come out and that we\u2019ll sell out all our games at HBF Park next year. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can prove the fans are behind us and we\u2019re selling stadiums, the Perth media will get right behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n
IMPACT OF MAL MENINGA<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such an iconic figure. He\u2019s not just an immortal of the NRL but the Australian sporting scene,\u201d De Ceglie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s taught us a lot about values and culture but people underestimate how much he\u2019s in the nitty gritty of it as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously our player recruitment, Mal has been at the heart of all of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people who think that there isn\u2019t an audience in Perth for NRL, you should see Mal walk down the streets of Perth, the poor guy gets mobbed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are ticking exactly where we want them to be ticking and we\u2019re so grateful for the role that Mal has been playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mal Meninga and Anthony De Ceglie.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
GRASSROOTS IN WA<\/p>\n
De Ceglie also touched on the Bears\u2019 new Academy which was recently launched and how junior participation in rugby league has increased sharply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve definitely seen a spike. There\u2019s a 23% increase in junior participation with the biggest spike in the crucial 11-15 year old mark, which is the most important space we\u2019re operating in,\u201d the Bears CEO said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe launched the Perth Bears Tracks Academy two weeks ago. It\u2019s the first time there\u2019s been an elite academy for 15-17 year old rugby league players in Perth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like the Academy is the best way for us to turbocharge good local talent into rugby league talent but there\u2019s a lot of work to do and it\u2019s not going to be solved in 12-24 months. This will take five to ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie has played down the threat of the PNG Chiefs while revealing there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6128,23,133,6125,6122,369,5099,368,6137,6139,6141,6131,660,372,2863,1273,6135,2864,6133,355,6129,803,120,6136,335,6120,348,6138,6126,6140,6132,6123,3770,2855,6130,6121,6119,6142,6134,6124,247,6127,2853,516,353],"class_list":["post-4824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-andrew-abdo","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-newspapers","tag-australian-sporting-scene","tag-fox-league","tag-fremantle-dockers","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-hand-tennis","tag-inaugural-roster","tag-inequity-claims","tag-junior-participation","tag-latrell-mitchell","tag-mal-meninga","tag-matt-king","tag-matty-johns","tag-media-landscape","tag-media-opportunity","tag-mitchells","tag-new-south-wales","tag-news-bears","tag-nick-meaney","tag-oceania","tag-people-underestimate","tag-perth","tag-perth-bears-tracks-academy","tag-perth-glory","tag-perth-scorchers","tag-player-recruitment","tag-recruitment-hint","tag-right-players","tag-rivals-circle","tag-rugby-league","tag-rugby-league-central","tag-shakes-hands","tag-shock-signing","tag-sporting-fans","tag-sporting-teams","tag-sports-section","tag-sports-town","tag-sydney","tag-tell-all-interview","tag-transfer-window","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}