Liam Henry signing evokes memories of Mark Geyer’s Western Reds move
“Obviously it’s a great opportunity for me to play for the Bears, but I still have a year to get here and I’m fully focused on doing my best for Penrith.
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“I’ll be getting everything ready over the next 12 months and there’s nothing I want more than to win a premiership before I go, that’s for sure.
“Obviously every pre-season you look at areas where you can improve and get better, but we’ve retained our core squad and it’s exciting to think we can build on that.”
Henry said neither he nor his wife Sophie traveled to Perth before the Bears flew them out for negotiations.
“We spent two or three days looking around, meeting everyone at the club, looking at the facilities and the city, and liked what we saw,” he said.
“Of course it will be a bit challenging and there will be an adjustment period because it is quite a distance from home.
“But it’s not every day that I get the chance to help build a club from scratch and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
The key was coach Mal Meninga’s sales pitch.
“Obviously I admire Mal and what he did in the game,” Henry said.
“He took Sophie and I out to dinner, and I felt very, very privileged when he told me what he wanted to build and the legacy he wanted to leave, and he wanted me to be a part of it.”
The 105kg prop said it didn’t take a leap of faith to link up with a team that has recruited six players so far: Henry, Toby Sexton, Iszac Fa’asuamaleaui, Luke Smith, Harry Newman and Emarly Bitungane.
“I know what they want to build,” he said.
“Of course, as time goes by, transfers will come and it will be exciting to find out who I will be playing with.
“The good thing is that we will all be in the same boat, working hard to build a new team and it will be something special for everyone involved.”
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Geyer played 33 games for the Reds over three seasons before the Perth side suffered collateral damage in the Super League campaign and folded in late 1997, allowing the NRL to replace him with the Melbourne Storm.
The back-rower returned to continue his career with Penrith and retired at the end of the 2000 season.
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