For now, the Bears will still be ‘North Sydney' for these fans
Is Sayers sad the team is leaving NSW? 'No, not really' he says. 'It's been accepted for a long time that the club was looking to move elsewhere.'
Bears fans are a stoic bunch. But Dave Kerslake is almost mystical when he describes the moment he calls 'the biggest thing to happen in sport worldwide'.
'We've been out of this competition for 26 years, and we have risen again like Lazarus,' he says.
That 26-year struggle comes after the Bears fell foul of an agreement with Rupert Murdoch's Super League to reduce the number of NRL teams to 14 (there's a cheer when the stream for the press conference is switched to Channel Nine from the former Murdoch-owned Fox Sports).
That history also includes a brief partnership with former rivals Manly as the Northern Eagles (a boo echoes through the room when this is mentioned by a TV announcer) and long-term attempts to move the club to Gosford as the Central Coast Bears. Talks to take the franchise to WA were revealed in 2018.
Bears chief executive Gareth Holmes, who was appointed in 2021, has been instrumental behind the scenes. 'We've made sure everyone knew that the Bears were still here,' he says.
Holmes confirmed the North Sydney club, which has served as a feeder for no fewer than four NRL teams – most recently Melbourne Storm – will continue to play in the NSW Cup, and help recruit for the WA team.
Scott Cable and Ben Pickering, both 35, were nine years old when the Bears last played in the NRL. They don't have strong memories of that time, but never thought about abandoning the team as it dropped to rugby league's second tier, even if others strayed.
'There's been other supporters that follow other teams, but I'm pretty sure they'll jump back on board with the Bears.' V'landys has said there are 200,000 hibernating Bears fans in NSW, and the WA government has banked on the club's ability to appeal to new fans.
Bears chairman Daniel Dickson has said the club had several 'non-negotiables' when it came to taking the franchise to another city: two to four games at North Sydney Oval, and no changes to the name and logo, although it's not clear exactly what that will mean.
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Pickering admits to being 'very nervous' about the logo, which has already had 'North Sydney' removed in a bid to make the club a more attractive prospective franchise. 'But at the end of the day we've still got a team,' he says.
For now, until fans get used to calling them just 'the Bears', or 'Perth', the club will still be 'North Sydney'. Even Florimo can't avoid the slippage, as he praises the sponsors and supporters 'that have helped us through, that have seen the light at the end of the tunnel'.
'That's North Sydney blood.'
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