Make no mistake, Western Australia’s Premier gave a firm middle finger to National Rugby League bosses when he waited 15 minutes after they had settled into their business class flight to WA to confirm a Perth Bears NRL deal via social media on Wednesday. Flying at 30,000 feet on their way to a supposed joint announcement, Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo could do nothing to stop him. Frustrated by a steady flow of leaks to News Corp’s Daily Telegraph, with whom the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman V’Landys enjoys a cosy relationship, Cook snapped up a chance to win one back. Months ago, the undeniable genius of the sports administration put a $320 million figure into the rugby league-sphere in an attempt to share the spoils of a cash-flush mining state. Ambit claim or not, the Premier wasn’t having a bar of it.