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Positional priorities: Meninga reveals Perth recruitment focus
Nicholas Quinlan • December 15th, 2025 4:50 pm
Inaugural Perth Bears coach Mal Meninga has provided insight into how he is trying to build out the squad’s roster for their expected arrival in 2027.
The pieces are slowly coming together for the NRL’s 18th side, which has now signed six players to its roster.
While they still have plenty more signings to make across the next couple of months, Meninga has maintained on making sure they go after the right players for the side.
“We’ve got a big job in front of us,” the Rugby League Immortal said on SEN WA Breakfast.
“We need 30 recruits and six development players, so we need 36 players together and their families. Everyone forgets about the families.
“Our process didn’t start until November 1, so the process is to get in front of the player managers and the players, making sure they are people of interest.
“We’re hand-picking all our players; we’re not going (with) a scattergun approach. We’re just making sure they are people with the right attitude and going over to Perth for the right reasons.”
Looking at positions of focus, the former Queensland and Australian coach highlighted the need to ensure the spine is as good as possible to allow for success.
He then reiterated the importance of ensuring that this side can have sustainable successful, in a similar ilk to the competition powerhouses in the Brisbane Broncos and the Melbourne Storm.
“There’s a tendency, obviously, with what we call our spine. So, that’s a nine (hooker), a seven (halfback), six (five-eighth) and one (fullback), we just got to make sure we’ve got quality people and players in those positions,” Meninga explained.
“They are really crucial to a Rugby League team. We believe that a prop (No. 8) like Liam Henry is really important for the team, and then we look at one, maybe two outside backs, plus one back rower, a sort of 13 who's an 80-minute player.
“So, we sort of target players positionally initially, and that’s what we are doing at the moment, and I think we are doing really, really well in that space.
“That’s how you build a club.
"You build it around core players with really good experience, you hold them together over long periods of time, and you keep on building teams around them to give that sustainability with your roster over a long period of time. That’s the theory in general.
“It’s been a big focus of ours, and with that, hopefully we get success (in) year one, but it’s not even about year one.
"It’s about 20 years time that the Perth Bears are a team like the Melbourne Storm or the Brisbane Broncos, they are continually top of the ladder, and they are trying to win a grand final every year.”
