The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 92 years of top-grade competition. The Bears are based on Sydney's Lower North Shore, and have played at North Sydney Oval since 1910. There is a bid supporting a resurrection of the club in the NRL as the Central Coast Bears, based in Gosford, New South Wales.
The club was established in 1908, making it one of the original founding members of the New South Wales Rugby Football League, and one of Australia's first rugby league football clubs. North Sydney continued competing with some success in the first half of the 20th century in the NSWRL, and through the ARL and NRL premierships until they merged with Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles to form the Northern Eagles for the 2000 season. The merged club lasted only until 2002 when it split again, with the Bears not returning to first grade and being represented at the highest order in the NSWRL competition the second-tier rugby league competition, where they continue to play today.
North Sydney are presently in partnership with the Rabbitohs serving as Souths' reserve grade side since 2007. As of 2016, 247 players who have been affiliated with Souths have played with Norths in The Intrust Super Premiership NSW. Until the end of season 2009, Souths were coached by the Bears' record-breaking top points scorer, Jason Taylor.
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History
North Sydney was formed as a foundation club of the newly arrived rugby league game in 1908 and were known as the Shoremen. Like the other Sydney district clubs, Norths were largely born from players and officials from the local Rugby Union club, Northern Suburbs Rugby Club. The club initially struggled to obtain access to North Sydney Oval, but council obstruction was removed and the Shoremen played their first real home game in 1910. Many good players such as Andy Morton, Jimmy Devereaux and Sid Deane were lost to English clubs in the years after making the semi-finals in the season of 1908.
They were nearly dropped from the competition during World War I because of dwindling spectator numbers. Towards the end of the war, Norths' fortunes improved, playing quality and spectators numbers increased and they won 2 premierships in 1921-22 coached by Chris McKivat. Unfortunately, these would be their last first grade premierships and their last grand final appearance was in 1943. when an injury riddled North Sydney were beaten by Newtown 34-7. North Sydney's Captain-coach in the Grand Final of 1943 was the future doyen of rugby league broadcasters, Frank Hyde. Hyde, who was living in Lane Cove at the time, had been forced to switch from Balmain to Norths in 1941 due to the leagues residency rules which stated that a player was required to live in their clubs district. As Lane Cove was in North Sydney's district, the club protested to the NSWRFL and claimed Hyde from Balmain.
The team became known as the North Sydney Bears during the 1950s after accepting a sponsorship from the nearby Big Bear supermarket at Neutral Bay.
The 1952 season saw North Sydney reach the finals for the first time since 1943. Norths went on to make the finals again in 1953 & 1954 losing to Souths and St George respectively. Norths then had to wait 10 years to make the finals again, this time against Balmain where they lost 11-9. The following year North Sydney came 2nd in the regular season but were defeated 47-7 by St George and then lost to South Sydney the following week 14-9. "North may pay record bonus". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. 8 September 1952. Retrieved 5 December 2009. </ref>
During that time, North Sydney produced arguably the greatest winger the game has ever seen in Ken Irvine. Irvine still hold the record for most first grade tries for one club (171).
New South Wales representative Queenslander, Bruce Walker, captained the Bears in the final of the 1976 Amco Cup.
It would be 17 long years before North Sydney made the finals series again when they finished 3rd in the 1982 season. North Sydney were coached that year by the great Ron Willey. Norths were knocked out of the finals series that year in consecutive games, firstly losing to Manly and then Eastern Suburbs the following week. In 1986 North Sydney made the finals series again, this time they were eliminated by Balmain in the first week.
The nineties saw finals appearances and near misses in 1991, and 1994-1998, In that time period Norths made the preliminary final 4 times but fell short on each occasion. In 1991, North Sydney finished the regular season in 3rd place and defeated arch rivals Manly in the first week of the finals. In the next match, North Sydney had the chance to make their first grand final in 48 years if they could defeat Penrith. After being behind on the scoreboard 12-0, Norths fought their way back into the match to level the scores at 14-14. Normally reliable goal kicker though, Darryl Halligan missed 4 shots at goal and only kicked 1 from 5 including a penalty miss in the dying minutes. Penrith won the match 16-14 despite the fact that Norths scored more tries in the game.
On 14 July 1994 the club was fined $87,000 for breaching the salary cap. That year they came within one match of the grand final but lost to Canberra.
North Sydney remained loyal to the Australian Rugby League during the Super League war of the mid-1990s. In the 1996 ARL season Norths came within one match of the Grand Final but lost the game to The St George Dragons 29-12.
The following year saw two separate national rugby league championships, and confirmation of the club's intention to move north to New South Wales' Central Coast.
In the 1997 season, North Sydney again made the preliminary final against Newcastle at The Sydney Football Stadium. The winner of the match was to play minor premiers Manly in The Grand final. After trailing the game in the second half, Norths Fullback Matt Seers made a break down the touchline and seemed destined to score until Newcastle winger Darren Albert raced across the field and tackled him into touch. With the score 12-8 in favor of Newcastle with under 10 minutes to play Jason Taylor set up Michael Buettner for a try which made the score 12-12. Normally a very reliable kicker and one of the most accurate in the competition, Taylor had already missed two previous conversions in the match but if he was to kick this goal it could send North Sydney through to their first grade final since 1943. Taylor ended up missing the goal which by his standards was an easy attempt. With the scores locked at 12-12 Newcastle player Matthew Johns kicked a field goal with 2 minutes to play to make it 13-12. With only seconds remaining Norths frantically threw the ball around and lost it, the ball was swooped up by Owen Craigie and he raced away to score a try and officially put the game to bed.
In 1998, Norths finished 5th on the table and qualified for the finals. Once again they were eliminated from the finals after losing both their matches in consecutive weeks. Against Parramatta 25-12 and then the following week against Canterbury 23-2.
By the start of the 1999 NRL season the future looked bright, with plans for the move north well underway, but one unfortunate and apparently non-negotiable outcome of the Super League war's peace deal was a criterion designed to reduce the number of teams in the NRL to fourteen.
On August 28 1999, Norths played their final game as a first grade side against The North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville. Norths won the game 28-18.
Northern Eagles
Due to having a debt of around $4 million, the North Sydney club was not considered under the NRL's inclusion criteria, although in later years other clubs, such as Cronulla, West Tigers, the Warriors and the Gold Coast have all incurred significantly larger debts. As talks of a merger developed, a campaign to keep the Bears in the top flight of Australian rugby league was formed. The Save the Bears (STB) campaign team fought to keep the club in the NRL, and also linked up with South Sydney to help start the fight for that team to be re-admitted into the NRL. Nevertheless, the STB campaign was unsuccessful and a merger with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles resulted in the Northern Eagles being born. Among some fans, the merger proved unpopular. The name Northern Eagles had little relevance to North Sydney with many people feeling the word Northern represented the Northern Beaches and not the word Norths or North used to describe North Sydney since 1908. The word Eagles reflected the Eagle or Sea Eagle of the Manly club and had nothing to do with the beloved Bear mascot of the North Sydney club. The originally mooted Northern Phoenix was dismissed by the dominant Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles faction. The team colours were largely based on the old Manly colours, another reason Bears' fans used to refuse to support the joint venture.
The joint venture club played out of Brookvale Oval and North Power Stadium (now BlueTongue Stadium) at Gosford, a ground successfully lobbied and built for the Bears, but poor on-field performances and factional fighting led to the collapse of the Northern Eagles in 2002, after only three years. After this, the Northern Eagles' licence then reverted to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, leaving the foundation club out of the top flight of rugby league in Australia after more than 90 years.
The North Sydney football club was effectively killed off despite building the only new football stadium in NSW in a generation, taking the game to a new area in the Central Coast and attempting to maintain a link to Sydney's north shore, and being the foundation club that built the game.
The New South Wales Cup
North Sydney play in the second-tier NSW Cup competition, serving as the reserve side for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. They have also been affiliated with the New Zealand Warriors and the Melbourne Storm in the past. In the 2007 NSWRL Premier League the North Sydney Bears made the Grand Final facing off against Sydney rivals Parramatta. They were beaten 20-15 by Weller Hauraki, scoring a controversial try with just 13 seconds to go, which many believed should not have been allowed due to a forward pass. North Sydney finished the 2008 season as NSW Cup minor premiers and were eliminated in the finals in straight sets. In 2009 the Bears lost to Balmain Tigers in extra time to miss out on the Grand Final 19-18. 2010 was a poor season for the Bears, who received the wooden spoon. However this was turned around in the 2011 season with the Bears reaching the preliminary final and losing to eventual premiers the Canterbury Bulldogs. Deon Apps and Curtis Johnston represented the Bears in the 2011 NSW Residents side with Johnston finishing up leading try scorer for the competition by the end of the regular season with 28 tries, Johnston would play 110 games with the Bears NSW Cup scoring 97 tries in 6 seasons. 2012 saw the Bears make the semi finals, missing out on the minor premiership by points differential to the Bulldogs. They lost their first semi final to Newcastle Knights but had a chance to remain in the running of the competition the week after only to give up a 24-6 lead to the Newtown Jets and lose in extra time 32-30 from a Daniel Mortimer 35-metre penalty goal. The Newtown Jets went on to beat Balmain Tigers in the 2012 NSW Cup Grand Final. In 2013, the Bears recorded several large victories in the regular season and finished third. They defeated the Newcastle Knights 32-28 in the first week of the finals, and were then eliminated by minor premiers and eventual NSW Cup premiers the Cronulla Sharks in the preliminary final, who recorded a convincing 38-6 win. This was the third consecutive season that the Bears had been eliminated in the finals by the team which would eventually win the premiership. This was also was Matt King's final game of Rugby League. After three consecutive top four finishes, season 2014 was a horror year for the Bears, who recorded only two wins throughout the entire season and finished with the wooden spoon, eight points below the second-last placed Manly Warringah. Season 2015 saw a strong improvement as the Bears won nine games throughout the season and returned to the NSW Cup finals, only to be eliminated by the Bulldogs in Week One, and finished eighth. In the 2016 NSW Cup North Sydney finished the season in 10th place and therefore missed the finals.
The Bears have won eight premierships in reserve grade, making them the second most successful club currently participating in the competition. They last won a premiership in 1993, defeating Newcastle in the grand final 5-4. The Bears have also been the only team to have participated in every season of reserve grade since the competition's inception in 1908.
The Central Coast Bears
There is a movement for a return to first-grade Rugby League for the club, with the North Sydney Bears moving to Gosford (on the Central Coast, New South Wales) and becoming the Central Coast Bears. The Bears bid committee is lobbying the NRL for inclusion as the next expansion team. They are headed up by Perry Lopez and Greg Florimo and has the corporate backing of a number of local Central Coast and some North Shore businesses. The proposed team would play 11 games in Gosford and 1 game at North Sydney Oval (obviously against Manly as part of a heritage or rivalry round). North Sydney legend David Fairleigh is proposed to become the inaugural coach. Prominent rugby league personalities who have publicly backed the club include Phil Gould, Andrew Johns and Peter Sterling while support has also come from as high up as Federal Treasurer and North Sydney MP Joe Hockey.
Bears fan Alan McLoughlin, a Central Coast resident, set up a Facebook petition to bring the Bears to Gosford. It has been speculated that the revived foundation club, the North Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, would form part of the Central Coast Bears consortium with several private investors. These are the two other Sydney Rugby League clubs which shared common geographic borders with the Bears, across The Spit and across Sydney Harbour respectively, for much of their existence. These are the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and the Sydney Roosters, respectively.
The Central Coast Bears have initiated programs with local juniors and schools playing rugby league in the region which were very successful with local children. The Central Coast Bears have 7,200 financial members with new members joining weekly. They were aiming for 5,000 by March 2011, when the official bid was due to be handed in to the NRL but passed that mark in 2010. Mortgage House signed a three-year deal to sponsor the Central Coast Bears, also becoming a major jersey sponsor for the Bears. In November 2010, it was reported that Ken Sayer, CEO of Mortgage House, planned to underwrite the bid for $10 million to help ensure their financial equity was shored up when the bid was submitted. Both major political parties showed support for the Central Coast Bears bid in 2010-2011, with Labor supporting the bid by granting $100,000 for the Bears, and the Liberal party supporting the bid by promising to acquire land at Mt Penang, Central Coast, NSW to build a state-of-the-art Sports Centre of Excellence in the lead up to the 2011 New South Wales state election.
With weekly membership drives and ongoing community involvement, the Central Coast Bears targeted entry into the NRL in 2015, but this date passed without admission. In 2016, it was reported that there were moves for the Bears to buy the Gold Coast Titans franchise.
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North Sydney Leagues Club
Rebranded as norths, the North Sydney Leagues Club was established by the district's football club, the North Sydney Bears, in 1955 in a house in the Sydney suburb of Neutral Bay. In 1964 the club moved to new premises, its current location, in Abbott Street, Cammeray.
In the fifty years the new building has stood, a number of redesigns and refurbishments have taken place. In 2014 facilities comprised two dining areas, function rooms, a 530-seat auditorium, a fitness and wellness centre, indoor and outdoor lounge areas, a bottle shop, a TAB, two squash courts, a courtesy bus service, a members rewards program and a multi-level car park for 320 vehicles. Membership in 2016 stood at 21,500.
In 1996 norths merged with the North Sydney Bowling Cub, which was established in 1888 and is the second oldest club (by one day) in Australia. This Bowling Club was transformed and re-branded as The Greens North Sydney in November 2014. Norths also amalgamated with seagulls Club, a border club at Tweed Heads on the far north coast of New South Wales, the oldest provincial rugby league club in Australia.
2017 squad
Team of the Century
On 26 August 2006 the club announced their "Team of the Century".
Former players of note
^Did not play first grade for North Sydney, instead played junior representative rugby league for North Sydney after their fold from the NRL
Coaches
- Chris McKivat^ 1921-22
- Jimmy Devereux 1924
- Tedda Courtney 1930
- Arthur Edwards 1933
- Frank Burge^ 1935 & 1945
- Laurie Ward 1937
- Bob Williams 1938-1939
- Arthur Halloway 1940-1941
- Roy Thompson 1941
- Jack O'Reilly 1942
- Frank Hyde 1943-1944 & 1950
- Harry Forbes 1946
- Cliff Pearce 1947-1948
- Harry McKinnon 1949
- Laurie Doran, 1951
- Ross McKinnon^ 1952-53 & 1959
- Rex Harrison 1954-1955
- Bruce Ryan^ 1956
- Trevor Allan 1957-1958
- Greg Hawick 1960-1985
- Bob Sullivan 1961-1962
- Fred Griffiths 1963-66
- Billy Wilson 1967
- Colin "Col" Greenwood 1968
- Roy Francis^ 1968-1970
- Merv Hicks 1971-1972
- Noel Kelly^ 1973-76
- Bill Hamilton 1977-1978
- Tommy Bishop^ 1979
- Ron Willey^ 1980-82
- John "Chow" Hayes^ 1983-84
- Greg Hawick 1985
- Brian Norton 1985-86
- Frank Stanton^ 1987-89
- Steve Martin^ 1990-92
- Peter Louis^ 1993-99
- Keiran Dempsey^ 1999
- David Fairleigh 2002
- Gary Larson 2003-2004
- Gary Freeman^ 2005
- Wayne Lambkin^ 2006-2014
- Ben Gardiner^ 2015-
^ Did not play first grade for Norths
Club records
Club records
5 Biggest Wins
- 62 points, 62-0 against North Queensland Cowboys at North Sydney Oval on 23 August 1998
- 54 points, 60-6 against North Queensland Cowboys at North Sydney Oval on 16 April 1995
- 52 points, 64-12 against Balmain Tigers at North Sydney Oval on 30 May 1999
- 52 points, 55-3 against Penrith at North Sydney Oval on, 16 July 1978
- 45 points, 45-0 against Cumberland at Wentworth Park on 25 July 1908
Biggest Loss
- 56 points, 3-59 against Glebe at Wentworth Park on 17 July 1915.
Highest Points
- 64 points, Norths defeated Balmain Tigers 64-12 at North Sydney Oval on 30 May 1999.
Highest Score Conceded
- 60 points, Brisbane Broncos defeated Norths 60-6 at QSAC Stadium on 26 April 1998.
Most appearances for the club
- 285, Greg Florimo 285 games (1986-1998)
Most Tries for the club
- 171, Ken Irvine in 176 games (1958-1970)
Most Goals for the club
- 563, Jason Taylor in 147 games (1994-1999)
Most Points for the club
- 1,274, Jason Taylor (32 tries, 563 goals, 20 field goals) in 147 games (1994-1999)
Most Points in a season
- 242, Jason Taylor (10 tries, 98 goals, 6 field goals) in 1997
Most Consecutive Wins
- 9 matches, 24 July 1920 - 14 May 1921
- 9 matches, 13 June - 14 August 1994
Most Consecutive Losses
- 12 matches, 3 June - 26 August 1979
Home and Away Attendances
- 47,398 at Sydney Cricket Ground vs St George on 9 May 1959
- 23,089 at North Sydney Oval vs Manly on 13 May 1994
Finals Attendance Record
- 60,922 at Sydney Cricket Ground vs Newtown on 4 September 1943 NSWRFL Grand Final
Club honours
Premierships: (2) 1921, 1922
Runners-Up: (1) 1943
Minor Premierships: (2) 1921, 1922
Finals Appearances: 1908, 1921, 1922, 1928, 1935, 1936, 1943, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1964, 1965, 1982, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Undefeated Season: 1921 (8 games: 7 wins 1 draw)
Reserve Grade Premierships: 1940, 1942, 1955, 1959, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993
Third Grade Premiership [and equivalent competitions]: 1937, 1945, 1946, 1959
President's Cup: 1918, 1933
H 'Jersey' Flegg Memorial Trophy: 1998
Sevens: Runners-Up: 1996, 1997
City Cup: Winners: 1920, 1922 Runners-Up 1913, 1959
League Cup: Runners-Up: 1919
State Championship: Runners-Up: 1945
Pre-season Competition: Runners-Up: 1964, 1966, 1977
Midweek Cup [as Amco Cup]: Runners-up: 1976
Channel 10 Challenge Cup: Winners: 1978
Australian internationals
- George Ambrum 1972
- Martin Bella 1986-1989
- Tom Berecry 1911-1912
- Cec Blinkhorn 1921-1922
- Albert Broomham 1909-1912
- Michael Buettner 1996
- Brian Carlson 1958-1961
- Tedda Courtney 1910
- Arch Crippin 1936
- Brett Dallas 1996
- Sid Deane 1908-1914
- Jim Devereux 1908-1909
- Peter Diversi 1954-1955
- David Fairleigh 1994-1996
- Greg Florimo 1994-1995
- Nevyl Hand 1948-1949
- Harold Horder 1920-1922
- Ben Ikin 1998
- Ken Irvine 1959-1968
- Clarrie Ives 1921-1922
- Peter Jackson 1991-1992
- Les Kiss 1986
- Gary Larson 1995-1997
- Dinny Lutge 1908-1909
- Ken McCaffery 1957
- Don McKinnon 1982
- Keith Middleton 1950
- Billy Moore 1995-1997
- Andy Morton 1908-1909
- Fred Nolan 1937-1938
- Herman Peters 1921-1922
- Tim Pickup 1972-1974
- Con Sullivan 1910-1914
- Bob Sullivan 1954
- Duncan Thompson 1919-1922
- Roy Thompson 1937-1938
- Bruce Walker 1978
- Laurie Ward 1937-1938
- Lloyd Weier 1965-1966
- Billy Wilson 1963
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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