Last night our KOE NSW Cup team put on a dominant performance in our third trial game of the pre-season, taking on the Canterbury Bulldogs at Belmore Sportsground. This game saw our more senior players pull on the red & black jersey and we got to see what our 2024 competition team was shaping into. “The first 20mins was superb, going up 30 to nil with some long range tries. The boys looked very slick.” stated Head Coach Pat Weisner. Ben Talty and Kurt De Luis led the way and Nathaniel Roache was fantastic in his first game of the year. Daniel Ala and Allan Fitzgibbon performed very strongly in the backs and Kieran Hayman and Ben Stevanovic controlled the team well with some great kicking. Not to get ahead of ourselves, the Bulldogs side was a mix of NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg players yet still a good indication of what the Bears can achieve this season.

Weisner continues to adjust and bolster the team and recently signed three new players. Trey Peni swaps his stripes to come across to the Bears from the Wests Tigers. Peni has come through the Wests Tigers pathway program having played Harold Matts, SG Ball and Jersey Flegg in the orange and black. He was also called up to play in the Tigers 2023 NRL preseason challenge, scoring the first try for the team.

Luke Hodge commits to the Bears going from a Train & Trialist to a contracted player in 2024. Hodge played in our Jersey Flegg team in 2018 and 2019 before moving on to play with the Sea Eagles in 2022 and more recently with the Sydney Roosters in 2023.

And finally, our first Fijian Silktails signing joining the Bears this season is Sunia Naruma. Naruma captained the Silktails in 2023 and is keen to prove himself in NSW Cup. Welcome to the Bears Trey, Luke and Sunia!