‘It’s got to happen quickly’: Peter V’landys mounts post-election pressure on Roger Cook over WA NRL side

NRL supremo Peter V’landys has wasted no time putting pressure on Roger Cook to cut a deal to bring a team to WA, saying it has “to happen quickly” as he hinted at a secret pact with the Premier not to discuss the topic during the election campaign. Mr V’landys’ tough talk, less than 48 hours after Mr Cook’s re-election, flies in the face of the Premier’s insistence over the past few weeks that negotiations were in the “very early days” as he sought to rubbish suggestions of a nine-figure payment to the NRL. Appearing on television on Monday night, Mr V’landys was asked about the speed of a deal with WA, after the re-election of “his mate” Mr Cook and suggested there had been a pre-poll hush deal not to discuss the matter. “Look, it’s got to happen quickly and Roger and I made an agreement just before the election, or well before the election, that once the election started, we would down tools and wouldn’t discuss it,” Mr V’landys, the chair of the Australian Rugby League Commission, said. “That’s what we did. So now the ball is in their court to come back to us. We put a proposal to them, so it’s up to them to come back to us.” Under a proposal to bring Australian rugby league’s top competition to WA, the North Sydney Bears would be relocated to Perth and rebadged as the “Western Bears”. But Mr V’landys’ comments about a deal between himself and the Premier to stay quiet is set to raise further questions over the progress of the conversations with the State Government. Asked on Tuesday about Mr V’landys’ comments, a State Government spokeswoman watered down expectations of an immediate deal, but refused to comment on the detail of the NRL’s proposal, denying the hush deal. “The Premier is focused on forming the newly elected Cook Labor Government and his Cabinet following the weekend’s historic election result,” she said. “There is no agreement. We are open to engaging with the NRL on opportunities that would benefit Western Australians in future.” Mr Cook had insisted last month that it was “very early days in terms of those conversations”. “We’re keen for them to progress but we don’t want them to progress at the expense of a good deal for West Australians,” he said. Mr Cook’s eagerness to cut a deal with the NRL became a significant issue during the five-week election campaign, after reports emerged of a $320 million demand from the league in order to secure the team. As part of the reported demands, the State would fork out more than $120m to the NRL for a licence fee, as well as committing $200m for upgrades to HBF Park — designated as the home ground of the new club. While rubbishing the claimed figure, Mr Cook at one stage said he wished Mr V’landys would “shut up” about the talks with the State, after the revelations were widely published in east coast media. The Premier’s remarks came after revelations last month that he had held last-minute talks with Mr V’landys days before the Government entered caretaker mode. The Opposition used the uncertainty over the cost of the deal with the NRL to criticise Mr Cook and Labor’s handling of the State’s finances. Calling the side “Roger’s rugby team”, Liberal Party leader Libby Mettam urged the Premier to be transparent about what funding he would commit to secure the Western Bears. “WA deserves a rugby team, but we should not be handing hundreds of millions of dollars to east coast businessmen to secure it,” she said during the campaign. On Monday, Mr V’landys defended the NRL against accusations it had leaked details of the discussions. “We got accused of leaking things to the media, it wasn’t us. We never said a word,” he said. “It got coverage over in Western Australia, and it caused them a little bit of grief. But we had certainly put the tools down. We didn’t discuss it, we didn’t do anything.” It was not until the final week of the campaign, when Mr Cook appeared at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters breakfast, that the Premier categorically stated the NRL would not receive any taxpayers’ money to bring the team west. Pushed on whether the spend was appropriate during WA’s cost-of-living crisis, he said a deal would be good for the economy. “Sport and, indeed, national sport franchises are big business, and it’s a great opportunity for our economy, but not a single dollar of taxpayers’ dollars will go to the NRL,” Mr Cook said. “We want to make sure that if WA is to participate in another national competition, and I think we should, and I made that very clear all along, but it has to be good value for money for WA taxpayers, and it has to be a benefit to the WA economy.”