North Sydney Bears, Rugby League

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.[1] 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 were in a partnership with the Rabbitohs serving as Souths' reserve grade side from 2007 until the agreement ended in 2018. In total, 247 players who had been affiliated with Souths played with Norths in The Intrust Super Premiership NSW.[2] Until the end of season 2009, Souths were coached by the Bears' record-breaking top points scorer, Jason Taylor. In September 2018, North Sydney announced that they had signed a 5 year deal to become the Sydney Roosters feeder club and reserve grade side with Taylor returning to the club as head coach.[3]