23°C | Tuesday October 21, 2025 
17 March 2025
It was hard to tell it was the winter season as the heat sweltered around Sydney. Even worse, both the North Sydney Bears and Norths Basketball spent the weekend out west, with temperatures almost hitting 40 degrees.
North Sydney Bears
After a narrow loss to the Sydney Roosters last week, Norths headed to Belmore Sports Ground to face Canterbury-Bankstown, who had also dropped their round one game. The match was the curtain-raiser for the NRL clash between the Bulldogs and Gold Coast Titans.
Things got off to an awful start for the Bears, conceding two tries within the first 10 minutes, both down either wing.
Bronson Garlick pulled back some points with a try in the 19th minute, with a perfectly thrown dummy that opened up the defence. Garlick was a late inclusion into the line-up as one of the Melbourne Storm players in reserves for the Bears, bringing 26 games of NRL experience with him.
The Bears’ fringe defence was then exposed again twice with more Bulldogs tries in the 22nd and 27th minutes. Norths conceded again in the 33rd off a huge line break after failing to catch a kick.
Despite the Bears’ 84% tackle effectiveness, the Bulldogs’ nine line breaks were the difference in the end, considering most of the key stats went in favour of the away team.
A sneaky try to Norths’ fullback, Jake Toby, off a grubber left the half-time score at a miserable 12-30. Things only got worse just two minutes into the second half as the home side crossed again to make it a 24-point margin.
Abiarthur Toi Tuilaepa would bite back for the Bears, courtesy of a magnificent Jake Toby cut-out pass to the winger.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs would cross the line two more times in the 58th and 62nd minute. Bronson Garlick managed to bag a double, scoring in the 70th, followed by hooker Nathan Roache adding a try in the 73rd for the Bears.
These tries proved to be too little, too late as the Bulldogs ran out 46-28 winners. Fans definitely got their money’s worth of points, in contrast to last week’s grind-it-out kind of match.
You can catch all the Bears’ highlights on our Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DHR4l81STom/
The mighty Bears will head to historic Lidcombe Oval next round to face Wests.
Norths Basketball
Norths Basketball had a busy weekend with back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday at the NBL1 Blitz in Penrith. On the first day, both men’s and women’s sides faced the Hills Hornets, both walking away with wins. Their form carried into Sunday with both sides smashing Illawarra by double-figure margins.
The latest signing for the men; Hunter Goodrick dominated in both games. Goodrick recently returned to his junior club after four years playing college basketball in the USA.
For the women’s team, WNBL talents Carla Pitman and Caitlyn Martin stood out. Both made huge iprovements while playing professionally with the Sydney Flames in summer.
Under new coach Tom Garlepp, the men’s side looked particularly impressive. Garlepp is a former NBL player with the Sydney Kings, Australian U16s coach and has guided several NSW state teams to national championships.
His wife, Renee Garlepp, is again at the helm of the Norths women’s team, after a summer as an assistant coach for the WNBL’s Sydney Flames and the Australian Opals national team. Both Garlepps have the Bears in a great position heading into the season due to great offseason talent recruitment and retention.
The Bears will have a weekend off this weekend, before their season opener on Saturday, 29th March, versus Bankstown.
Keep an eye on Sun social media and our website for full Norths Basketball NBL1 season preview coming soon.