23°C | Wednesday December 4, 2024 
24 November 2023
By Hannah Wilcox
The North Sydney Bears are looking forward to a big 2024, welcoming a new coach, two new signings and formation of a new Lisa Fiaola Cup squad.
Pat Weisner has been signed as the new KOE NSW Cup Head Coach with the team kicking off their first training session on November 14, coming off the back of the Bear’s Knock-On Effect NSW Cup win in 2023. He replaces Jason Taylor, who is off to an assistant coach position with the Canterbury Bulldogs first grade team.
“We’re excited. There’s a lot of new players this year, they’re quite excited. We’ve got quite a young team this year,” he said on Friday.
The coach said his plan was not to “flog” the players, but rather perfect the technical side of the game. The team will be “taking it easy” for the first couple of weeks to avoid injury.
“I think the days of flogging players are gone now. A lot of people stand here and say, ‘we’re going to flog the guys, it’s all about conditioning’. It’s not, there’s a lot of stuff we need to learn,” Weisner added.
“We’ve got a really young team so I want to make sure we’re really skillful. We are fit and ready to go, but just getting the guys to gel, knowing our systems and structures – that’s the main part.”
“Upskill the guys, get them all together and as we build through the pre-season there’ll be more volume after that,” he said.
Weisner confirmed the Bears have been in frequent talks with the Melbourne Storm as a part of their player pathway partnership.
“I’m going to head down [to Melbourne] in a couple of weeks just to spend the day down there and see our guys training, learn some of their systems and processes but stick to what we know as well. We came first last year, so we did a lot of things really well and we just want to continue those. If we can add a bit of the Storm flavour as well that would be fantastic.”
Jesse Marschke and Regan Hughes will be travelling down south this week with Tui Katoa and Jake Toby joining them in the new year.
The team will see hooker Nathaniel Roache and winger Tui Katoa back the red and black with the pair officially signed for the 2024 season.
Roache brings a wealth of experience having played with the NZ Warriors, Parramatta Eels and Manly Sea Eagles NRL programs. He has returned to the field off the back of a knee injury in 2021 but has made a strong comeback for the new year, whilst Katoa returns after playing 19 games for the Bears. The talented player was contracted with the Roosters last season but has now committed for 2024.
The new year will also see the new Lisa Fiaola Cup Squad introduce a new portfolio of teams. A NSWRL junior representative tackle competition for female players under 17, complementing the pathway leading to the U19 Women’s Tarsha Gale Cup.
It consists of local North Sydney District Junior League female players with preseason underway, led by head coach Bruce Tuaimau and assistant coach Greg Florimo. Competition will begin on February 3.
Weisner urged the community to get behind the club.
“The support last year was amazing,” he said.
“Some of those games at North Sydney Oval; seeing the red and black there and then the Grand Final day was just amazing.”