As our club embarks on our 117th year, we are excited for what 2025 is set to bring. On Wednesday 19th February we brought together our corporate and community partners, our members & fans, our board, staff and our playing group to help kick off the 2025 season and celebrate another year in the red & black. 130 people attended the launch held at Depot Brewery in Artarmon, a new partner of the Bears that we will formally launch in the coming weeks.
Guests mingled and chatted excitedly about the season ahead, while enjoying delicious empanadas, salmon blinis, shnitty sliders and gourmet freshly made wood fire pizzas. Alongside the tasty morsels, the new Bear Park Beers were thoroughly enjoyed straight from the brewery’s taps including the very popular new recipe Ginger Bear.
Formal proceedings kicked off with club CEO Gareth Holmes and Chairman Daniel Dickson welcoming guests and officially announcing the start of the 2025 season for our Knock-On Effect NSW Cup when round 1 commences on the 9th March. Club legend, Greg Florimo, hosted a Q&A with new Head Coach Tony Barnes and Assistant Coaches Joel Scrivener, Jason Dorahy and John Michael. Barnes discussed how his 25 years in high level rugby league coaching would benefit the Bears and what he had learned as opposition to the club when he was Assistant Coach for the 2024 Knock-On Effect NSW Cup Premiers, Newtown Jets. Scrivener talked to the team’s recruitment process for the season and applauded the club’s high retention from the 2024 season with 9 out of the 12 Bears contracted players who featured in the 2024 Grand Final re-signing with the club for 2025. He further expanded to highlight the players who will fill the big shoes left by those three players, Alan Fitzgibbon, Kieran Hayman and KDL, championing the efforts of Chase Chapman, Zac Makelim, Trey Brown and of course, Jesse Marschke.
Florimo proudly announced our 2025 Team Captain as Jesse Marschke with a leadership group consisting of Jake Toby, Ben Talty, Nathaniel Roache and Phillip Makatoa. Marschke then introduced his full squad and asked the players to make their way to the stage for a group photo. Our 2025 team is now complete and ready for round 1!
After much anticipation, Gareth Holmes introduced the two brand new playing kit designs for the 2025 season, calling up players Harradyn Wilson and Chase Chapman to model the new kit to the guests applause. Read more about that HERE.
We finished the night by meeting two new club partners. Our 2025 community partner, Mary’s House, will be an integral part of our club, our game days and is represented on all of our team jerseys from Junior Reps up to Knock-On Effect NSW Cup. Organisation representatives Lulu and Janine, spoke passionately about Mary’s House and how much the connection with the iconic North Sydney Bears means. Janine called on our players, our staff and our partners to stand up to domestic violence.
CEO Rick Dalton of our newest major partner, Danny Met Sally, spoke with great pride about the organisations alignment with the Bears for the next two years and how we will work together to ensure inclusiveness and awareness for people with visible and hidden disabilities across the Bears wider community.
Check out some of the photos from the night below and keep an eye out on the club’s social media pages for video clips from our guest speakers.
