{"id":82273,"date":"2026-08-28T11:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/82273\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:33:15","slug":"why-bears-latest-recruit-left-canberra-for-perth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/82273\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bears’ latest recruit left Canberra for Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corey Horsburgh says he decided he needed a refresh and chance to restructure his life, before opting to leave Canberra and become a foundation player at Perth.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the first time since he inked a three-year deal with the Bears, Horsburgh also revealed how he had been won over by coach Mal Meninga.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has spent recent days in Perth preparing for his move at season’s end, with the Bears to begin training at the WACA in less than three months.<\/p>\n

\"NRL\"<\/p>\n

Corey Horsburgh says he was impressed by Raiders’ legend Mal Meninga’s knowledge and vision. (Lukas Coch\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

His decision to move comes after 10 years with the Raiders, broken up only by a brief loan deal with Canterbury during the COVID-impacted 2021 season.<\/p>\n

“I just felt like I needed a change, a bit of a refresh if you will,” Horsburgh told the club’s Big Bears podcast.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I have so much more to offer. I am keen to show the Perth people what I can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I can’t wait for this move. My missus and family, we’re excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ve all seen what Canberra has to offer. I loved my time there, but I am ready for a change and ready to restructure my life.”<\/p>\n

Horsburgh became something of a cult hero at the Raiders and good enough to play State of Origin for Queensland when at his best.<\/p>\n

\"NRL\"<\/p>\n

Corey Horsburgh (left) has been around and in the Queensland squad for a few years. (Darren England\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

But he also spent time in reserve grade in 2024 and drew the ire of Ricky Stuart earlier this month when sin-binned for a slap in a season-defining loss to Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Stuart dropped Horsburgh the following week, but insisted there was no bad blood between he and the Raiders forward.<\/p>\n

Horsburgh also paid tribute to Stuart in Friday’s podcast, labelling Stuart a “very good coach and great bloke”, who had taught him all he knew about the sport.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, Horsburgh said it was another Raiders great who won him over.<\/p>\n

The front-rower was immediately sold by Meninga’s vision for the Bears, when the pair met in a Canberra cafe recently.<\/p>\n

He then opted to hold off confirmation of his move to Perth until after last week’s clash with Newcastle, which doubled as Josh Papalii’s last home game.<\/p>\n

“It happened quickly,” Horsburgh, whose signing gives Perth’s pack some impact, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We talked a little bit, and then all of a sudden he flew to Canberra and had a chat with me and my girlfriend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He made me fall in love with the ideas he had around building a club.<\/p>\n

“The way he was talking about Perth and footy in general, it seems like he knows a lot. I am very excited to have another chapter in my life and learn a lot.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corey Horsburgh says he decided he needed a refresh and chance to restructure his life, before opting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2184,663,131104,372,335,131105,131106],"class_list":["post-82273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-canberra","tag-corey-horsburgh","tag-horsburgh","tag-mal-meninga","tag-perth","tag-stuart","tag-stuart-a-very"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82273","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=82273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}