I'm a Bears tragic. There was one question on my mind as I watched the club's revival unfold in Perth

"Has it sunk in yet?"

It's one of the most common questions you hear in the sports broadcasting world.

I'm asking myself that very question as I sit here in a stadium I've never visited, in a city on the opposite side of the country to where I've spent my entire life.

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For the last 45 minutes I've watched the premier of this state, an AFL-mad state, stand next to the godfather of "rugba leeg", Peter V'landys, and the game's silky-smooth boss Andrew Abdo waxing lyrical about rugby league and how bloody good it is.

What? How did we get here?

Then he grabs a Steeden and starts kicking it with kids in rugby league jerseys?!

Oh … and the reason for all this … The Bears are back?! In Perth?!

Too bloody right!

As Thursday's announcement was happening under the scorching West Aussie sun (note to NRL — play night games here in May!) tears were flowing at North Sydney Leagues Club. This announcement was a quarter of a century in the making. So many false starts. Central Coast. Coffs Harbour. The Pacific. With each pipe dream came hope, then the inevitable heartbreak.

But Bears fans are used to it. The team I grew up watching in the '90s could've won three premierships, but did its best to make sure it didn't. In some sick way it made you love your team even more. And perhaps that's why the Bears were so many other people's second team. "Poor buggers just can't catch a break."

Well, we just did.

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The Bears are back in the one and only way it was ever going to work. A fresh start in the west … with a guaranteed fanbase in the east.

I'd like to think I'm a realist. When I'm asked, and it's often, "Who's your team?", and I say "The Bears" ... it's usually met with a laugh. I laugh along, too. You've got to. It's the only way to survive. And survive we have.

We're here now. Perth — this is your team. No question about that. But you've just made a whole lot of mates on the other side of the country you didn't realise you needed. But come round one, 2027 … this long-distance relationship will be realised for what it is — the perfect marriage.

Maybe then it'll all sink in.