Super League signature: Bears turn to England for first marquee signing

Mal Meninga and the Perth Bears have finally landed a star signature, with English international Harry Newman agreeing to join the 18th NRL expansion side from 2027 through to 2029 as a strike centre.

Newman will see out the last year of his Leeds Rhino contract before joining the Bears for preseason. He’s expected to be a leader figure in the squad that’s still slowly coming together under Meninga.

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His English credentials certainly help: Newman, who’s still just 25, has already played more than 100 games for the Rhinos since debuting in 2017. He most recently played a key role in Leeds’ charge into the Super League final six in the 2025 postseason, where they were eventually felled by fellow heavyweights St Helens in a 16–14 classic.

Newman will be familiar to most Australian rugby league fans, too, after he played for England in the third Ashes Test against the Kangaroos. He made 15 runs for 91 metres, including 34 post-contact, though he failed to score.

He’ll be joined in the budding squad by prop Liam Henry, who has also signed for the Bears from 2027.

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Meninga is also still hopeful he’ll be able to bring Melbourne Storm young gun Tyran Wishart to the club as a key halves star. The expansion side has been in conversations with Wishart’s agent for some weeks now, though they’re facing relatively staunch resistance from several other interested NRL clubs, as well as the Storm themselves.

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Perth’s latest high-profile miss was Jayden Campbell. Meninga had taken a pitch to the Gold Coast star personally, but he turned it all down to show loyalty for the Titans and take up a bumper extension on the glitter strip through to 2031.

The Bears have also signed Luke Smith from Canterbury and former Cowboy Marly Bitungane.