The Bears were formed by Bulldogs fitness and conditioning coach Josh Day to honour his brother Mitch who died of bowel cancer early last year.

Even the Bulldogs fan in their blue, red and white tri-colours were rivalled in numbers by fans wearing the Bears' black and red at Kurri Kurri Sportsground.

The Bears' coffers also received a boost to continue their work with the Rosellas players donating $1000 of their $5000 winner's prize to the cause after beating Kurri 10-4 in the final..

On the field the Bears fell just short of the semi-finals. The team, in their first games together, missed a drop-goal conversion against South Newcastle which would have given them a 16-15 win and a spot in the semi-final against Western Suburbs.

But off the field they achieved their aim of raising awareness and have already been invited to play in the Thailand Nines tournament after media reports on their efforts spread across the rugby league community.

Day was delighted by the Rosellas players' gesture and the response of the rugby league and wider community.

"It would have been lovely to make the semi-final, but I was just so pleased and proud of how the boys came together and played so well as a team," Day said.

"Our goal was to raise awareness and I think we've done a pretty good job at that. We got messages during the week from all over after the stories on us and were even asked for the team to compete at the Thailand Nines at the end of the footy season."

The Nines tournament proved an excellent hit-out for the 14 teams involved and Wests showed their is fire in the belly after missing out on last year's finals.

They won their three qualifying round games and then defeated South Newcastle in the semi-final before beating Kurri in the final.

The grand final results was the reverse of last season's tournament win which gave the Bulldogs tremendous momentum going into the season.

Despite the loss, Bulldogs coach Ron Griffiths was wrapped with the performance of his team and said they were tracking better than last year at this stage.

There was plenty to like about their performance with several recruits, including former Maitland Blacks captain Chris Logan making his return to rugby league.

The Maitland Pickers finished with just nine players for their final game against Cessnock and did a remarkable job to score a try and allow just three in as the Goannas were able to use unlimited interchanges from their extended bench.