One of the powerbrokers behind a potential Newtown Jets return to first grade has lifted the lid on why the iconic club’s joint-bid with Perth has collapsed.
John Singleton, one of the key players in the Jets’ attempted first grade revival, lifted the lid on why the foundation club’s push to re-join the top-flight is over.
Text messages revealed in The Sydney Morning Herald appear to show Singleton calling out the other parties involved in the bid.
‘Newtown out of Perth bid. Too many games being played by Norths and WA Government,’ one text read.
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Singleton also said the club were ‘better off spending time in the sun’ at Henson Park, the Jets’ home ground, than trying to gain re-entry into first grade with the Perth bid.
The news comes less than a month after the Jets, who were forced out of the NSWRL Premiership back in 1983, were considered one of the frontrunners to become the NRL’s next franchise as part of the joint-expansion bid with Perth.
However, Singleton’s comments have effectively ruled out the club from Sydney’s inner-west from a surprise top-flight return.
The SMH reported that Singleton took issue with several facets of the joint-bid, including the number of junior rugby leagye players in Western Australia as well as the level of financial backing and TV viewers touted by the WA government and the Perth expansion club’s preferred owner, Peter Cummins.
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Newtown’s withdrawal from the bid opens the door for the North Sydney Bears to re-enter the competition in a joint-bid with Perth, though it’s believed the path for that to occur isn’t straightforward.
It’s reported the Bears have made demands related to the number of seats on the board, the number of games played at North Sydney Oval as well as capital injection.
Moreover, Cummins recently told the SMH the first preference of the Perth franchise is to enter the NRL without any attachment to the Bears.
“The people involved in the consortium are West Australians who love rugby league and would love to see a stand-alone team in Perth,” Cummins said.
Cummins’ strong sentiment contradicts the desire of ARLC chairman Peter V’Landys, who last month said “the Perth Bears is the ideal partnership.”
A decision on the competition’s expansion plans were expected to be made at the end of June.
However, no such announcement has been made, with the fate of a future team in Papua New Guinea also in limbo after existing NRL clubs requested financial incentives to back the Australian government-backed bid.