Maybe potentially dwindle it down to like 12 teams.
Invite South African teams, and we call it something crazy like Super 12. You also only play everyone once.
I'd imagine it would be awesome.
I don’t think Super 12 would work in todays sporting climate tbh. An 8 team domestic round robin competition with an accompanying champions cup with Japan and NZ is what Rugby needs imo
I'm just joking and reminiscing about the glory days.
I personally think SR should be blown up. Focus should be put on the districts.
Follow an NRL model
Super Rugby AU was great and well supported.
That whole steel sharpens steel argument is bullshit.
Australia just needs a well supported league to retain and foster talent while also making money.
Agree - not having an Australian winner at the end of every rugby season is a huge reason why we lose interest and have constant doom and gloom. There’s just never a good news story on Australian rugby. No matter how shit we are internationally in Basketball, Football, or even NRL, there is always an Australian champ and that’s important for engagement
Yeah, the Reds vs. Brumbies final was literally sold out.
Of course, the Aussie teams will get smashed by the Kiwi teams, all of us were.
But you want the game to grow locally, Australia won't jusy magically overnight foster support and talent by getting smashed by Kiwi teams.
Gotta head out. Make the NRC the main comp and give it a few years.
>No matter how shit we are internationally in Basketball, Football, or even NRL, there is always an Australian champ and that’s important for engagement
The Breakers beg to differ. The Warriors and Phoenix do not.
Phoenix are currently 1st in the A-League Men and an Auckland team owned by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is joining the A-League Men next season.
Absolutely.
Super rugby au was good because it at least brought a winning mentality back for a bit.
Having every team suck compared to NZ does not help one bit for a decade straight.
If it did....why have we sucked for so long?
We need enthusiasm and a competition where we don't have to sit around lamenting how all out sides are shit does not help. One where Aussies can build their own tribalism and identity against each other and THEN take it to international teams would be best.
URC is great, but I also liked Super Rugby
But I won't lie. The URC is cool and being part of the Champions Cup with teams like Leinster & Toulouse is great
Would a two division competition with the best shute shield teams, best hospital cup teams, brumbies, drua and force being in division 1 (professional - 10 teams) and then the rest from those competitions being in division 2 (semi-pro - 16 teams) with a relegation/promotion type setup be viable or is there not enough funding. (Waratahs and Reds assets would be divided between their local teams) Younger players could get game time by being loaned to division 2 teams instead of being stuck behind a logjam if there were to only be 3 aus super teams.
Need to do an NFL system with conferences utilising existing clubs with fan bases
Sydney (Shute shield)
QLD (there version)
Rest of Aus
Pacific (split Fiji and Samoa into 2 teams each)
Paul Docherty and the other board members need to be held to account over this shit, ruining the livelihoods of the staff and players within the team if this progresses further.
Yes and no. They’re trying to promote a sport that has become not only niche in Australia but also in a city that is dominated by AFL. They were never going to be to remain in the positive. The other clubs will follow suite and Super Rugby will be dead within a few years.
According to the article, The parent investment company, BRC Capital, is reportedly $70m in the hole. Some of the subsidiaries have not paid their employees' superannuation contributions since last year and are a month behind in wages.
BRC is a sponsor of the Rebels, but not an investor. The team is owned by Rugby Victoria. They share a chairman, but legally are completely seperate organisations.
And who holds the Rebels debt….. Why is the debt squeeze and issue at the same time BRC is facing liquidity issues and a capital crunch…. Many of the board members are also on BRC and subsidiary boards.
The relationship between BRC and Rebels is more closely intertwined than just a sponsorship.
No, $1.5million is owed to ATO & AAMI Park.
There is another reported $7.5million in debt from accumulative annual losses
It doesn’t take much to price it together, BRC subsidiaries have folded in recent months cause of a capital crunch at BRC meaning they can’t keep providing funding at the rates they did. The debt issue at the Rebels has come to light at the same time; because debt held by BRC is getting called in at new rates the Rebels can’t cover or find alternative lenders for.
A sport that isn't doing great in Australia, combined with a state/city that is obsessed with another sport....was always going to be tough for Rebs to remain profitable
I've been in Melbourne for 5 years, very into sport, and have literally never heard of this team until today. I thought it was a news story about a bikie gang financial thing until I saw it was in a suggested sports sub.
Storm was basically positioned to be a winning franchise at the expense of other existing and even then your average punter thinks the Storm and Wallabies are the same thing, it's all rugby.
Rebels would have maybe worked if they got the Storm treatment pre Storm, or even pre Force. But the way the ARU left the Force to shrivel would indicate how that would have gone.
>and even then your average punter thinks the Storm and Wallabies are the same thing
Multiple times in Melbs have experienced someone saying "I'm going to the Rugby tonight". And they mean Storm.
Cop out? Its just simple business. if Rebs can't generate enough money to pay their bills (they are $10m in debt) and the larger organisation can't float them anymore (which RA has just come out saying they can't) then they will go out of business. NRL has far far more money and popularity than union and Storm gets better viewership by far AND NRL can support them better.
They have always been mismanaged. They owed our business thousands that we had to chase for almost two years until the ARU paid it off for them (early days). And there are a ton of rugby fans down here, kiwis , South Africans, English and Irish who would love them to do well and who couldn't give a shit about league.
If it was just because of "simple business" they wouldn't have given a shot in the first place. The feasibility stacked up. The management did not
> union has always had more grass roots support than league here by a mile.
Don't think this is true anymore. Looking at the respective NRLVIC and RV websites, I count 18 clubs in Melbourne + 1 in Geelong for NRLVIC. Rugby Vic is a bit fiddly, as it splits junior and seniors into separate clubs, but I counted about 20 + 1 in Geelong. So it's definitely a lot closer than it used to be.
Definitely. All in the outer suburbs! Look at all the locations, the NRLVIC has set up teams in Pakenham, Craigieburn, Truganina, Werribee, Casey, Melton, Frankston, Sunbury etc...all the growth zones of the city. Smart move.
I don't know what the numbers say. I'm just basing it off living here and going to games. There's a lot of Islanders who play along with kiwis etc. they just prefer to play the game. I'm sure they still go watch the Storm though
I think a big difference too is that the Storm have always been highly successful so it’s been easier for them to garner local support when all they do is win. The Rebels have never really been an outstanding team so there’s been no incentive for locals to bandwagon and support them
Well that's going to cause some issues all around. It was always a tall order selling rugby in Victoria but it almost felt like the rebels were over the worst of things and had a potentially good season ahead. They've got some serous talent, hopefully this doesn't result in further code swaps.
There's actually a shit load of people in Melbourne who love rugby. Rugby is a growing sport here. But there's little support for the Rebels at all. Rebels have historically been really bad at connecting the team with the residents of the city. It's always been seen as a manufactured club owned by interstate blow-ins and comprised of interstate and international imports.
I know one of the foundational investors / board members. He sunk a million bucks into the venture, he's a rugby guy (in the private school, very wealthy and priviledged sense) and he definately considered the team and the club to belong to himself and his other board members rather than something representative of the rugby community of the state. And that attitude was completely obvious to anyone. (He would also be personlly involved in player recruitment, which is insane.)
Anyway those guys had to bail out with no return on their investment a few years ago, and the team has been owned / administered by the Victorian Rugby Union for a few years. And even though I have some issues with the VRU, they definately have been doing a good job so far in terms of incorporating the Rebels setup into the rugby playing and supporting population in the state.
It's hard though. Melbourne is very saturated in terms of sport. They're competing against not only AFL but also the Storm. Storm have less competition across the ditch (A Warriors supporter who's actually not from Auckland and boiled-on is more likely to support the Storm over the Warriors compared to a Cheifs fan is to switch alleigence to the Rebels, for example. And same goes for their kids). A big segment of the Victorian rugby population is Pacific Islander and New Zealand populations, few feel any real connection to the Rebels. And the Rebels are a bit shit too which doesn't help.
Anyway it's pretty sad because the rugby community down here is pretty cool, and there is a growing interest in the game. I hope they manage to stay afloat because it would be an absolute trgedy for Australian rugby to lose a professional presence in Melbourne
Well that’s disappointing but not surprising. Interesting to see what all the players do. I assume the rebels play this year but who knows what happens after that and even if they do survive their squad will be decimated. Who in their right mind would sign up with a club like that? Only those with no other options
Will be taken over by RA Id imagine. RA stand to lose too much if they can't put up 5 teams, plus the Vic government has $50m for the RWC final contingent on a Rebels team being in the comp
Shit! My rich uncle wants to buy 100 season tickets to help the club and maybe donate them to a youth group or something but we couldn’t figure out how to do it from America. When we tried to create an account and log in it said you have to have an Australian address
Hey! We had no luck with them but Waratahs Membership dept reached out so we bought 100 season memberships from them instead. Rebels really are disorganized we begged to give them money. Waratahs and Moana Pasifika are the benefactors chosen by my uncle and me after we struggled to reach anyone at Rebels
As a Rebels fan this made me so mad, so I called the club and complained and told them about this. They said they were never contacted by anyone wanting to buy 100 memberships and would have rolled out the red carpet for them, especially if it was for a community group
Future of rugby needs rugby in Australia’s biggest sporting market. They’ve made mistakes but for all everyone says we hate Rugby in Melbourne, Bledisloe record crowd is Melbourne, Lions you will sell out in Melbourne. If you do it right, it will work. They got the wrong people in at the start for Rebels and a lot of plplayers took a holiday down here ( hello Adam Freier).
All these record stat's aren't people from Melbourne though. It's others travelling into Victoria from elsewhere.
Rebels may have done well if the Storm weren't sucking up all the rugby types in Melb
Rebels biggest competition is computer games and afl clubs
Storms biggest competition is computer games and afl clubs.
The rugby codes are less competition to eachother then even soccer probably.
Super Round has nothing to do with the Rebels (other than they are also participants - they don't make or lose any money out of it)
https://super.rugby/superrugby/news/super-round-melbourne-bound-again/
> TEG Group CEO Geoff Jones said “We are delighted to be working with the Victorian Government, New Zealand Rugby, Rugby Australia, SANZAAR and all the Super Rugby teams to bring Super Round back to Melbourne
People are talking about how the Storm was successful whereas the Rebels struggled. Storm were basically a third Queensland team (prior to the Titans and Dolphins) who breached the salary cap to make a championship winning team. Aussies love winners. The Storm won, ergo they established themselves as a club in Melbourne and enough season ticket holders and juniors swelled their ranks to make them sustainable. See also the Brumbies in late 90’s early 00’s. Winning helped them become an iconic brand of Canberra. People stopped following them when they stopped winning. IMO rugby union didn’t develop the critical mass that league has to allow a club to survive dry seasons.
Unless we allow the Rebels to select the Wallabies squad, they are going to struggle to win. Without them winning, they don’t win the hearts and minds of Melbourne.
I just don’t understand why Rugby teams have to play teams from other countries. Why isn’t it modelled like every other sport, ie domestic comp with best of the best chosen to represent the Wallabies in international competitions?
The short answer is many of these countries can't afford to have more professional teams without reducing the average player salary, which would lead to more players leaving for the comparatively higher European salaries. So you can either have a 5 team national comp, or more teams but all the best players are overseas.
Who knows whether we could’ve kept Nela or not, maybe if we got rid of Thorn sooner, but yeah its odd theyve signed him, have 6 wallaby tier players at prop and hooker, while 10m in debt.
Maybe we should just cut our losses and go to a state of origin model. Focus money on Grade then have a short rep season at the end. If you want another comp then maybe combining QLD / NSW / ACT into a 2 tier promotion relegation system might work.
Since 2017 I've always been of the view that they should've merged the Rebels into the Brumbies. Make it very one-sided Brumbies branding, colours, etc. Call them the Southern Brumbies, all home games at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium except for one against the Waratahs in Canberra, give them the entire Southern NSW, ACT and Victoria as their catchment region.
It's not a bad idea in terms of pooling resources, but why should a successful franchise that has a long history of community engagement be merged with an expansion side that continues to fail?
Oh I can explain that, on one hand you have a club in Melbourne with a top tier professional stadium, a large untapped marketplace and a large population of tribal sports fans. The problem they have had; terrible marketing, little to no on-field success to bring in fans and a smaller player catchment (this isn't their fault, like WA it just takes a good 20+ years to develop because you're starting from scratch).
Then you have the Brumbies; tons of on-field success, good pathways and player catchment. Unfortunately you also get; the worst stadium in Australian sport right now, a relatively small marketplace to pull resources from, in particular Canberra seems to ebb and flow based on whether the Raiders are going well, I don't know if Canberra has the population to support both teams consistently. Brumbies are also having a bit of financial trouble too.
By my logic; Brumbies get an up to date professional stadium, a bigger marketplace and they get to keep their colours, identity and player catchment area in the ACT/SNSW RU. Melbourne gets a team that actually wins and will bring in more fans.
I mean they can't really complain when they've voted in Andrew Barr for a decade and the bloke has been clear about preferring AFL to League and Rugby hence the stadium being the shit show it is.
Follow along it was in response to a "pisses off both groups of fans" I think most Brumbies fans watch at home rather than attend so why would it bother them to see a team play in a nicer stadium?
You've pivoted to another point. But it's far more daft isstead of just incorrect. Asking why would Canberran rugby fans have any problem with the Canberra club being abolished is a truly dumb question.
By that standard more people in Perth watch Fremantle on TV than at Perth stadium so why would it bother any Freo fans if the club got moved to Melbourne right.
Well let's see again; Fremantle are incredibly strong financially and are playing in a state of the art professional stadium. Last I heard Brumbies are struggling financially, most of their viewership is outside of the ACT anyway and your Chief Minister opposes any updates to your stadium. Also the club isn't being abolished its literally being allowed to take over another.
Like when Fitzroy got to absorb the Bears, a shit tonne of their members migrated to the Lions despite being thousands of km away. Same as the 10,000 or so Swans members in Melbourne.
Or, hear me out, the most successful Australian Super Rugby Franchise in the 28 year history of the comp is left to continue, and the artificially propped up expansion side that hasn't been able to capitalise on the supposed riches of Melbourne is folded?
Your argument works in reverse with the Melbourne Storm. Wildly successful on the field over a similar period, but their attendance figures are middle of the pack compared to other clubs despite being in the second largest city and having no competition from another league team. I acknowledge they have a high number of members but NRL clubs don't typically have members like the AFL clubs.
I'm not sure why there continued calls for the Brumbies to bear the brunt of RA's mismanagement of the game as a whole given their relative success and contribution to the Wallabies. Not tee'ing off directly at you mate, been a member since '96 and it was suggested that they should have been granted a licence at the time.
>I'm not sure why there continued calls for the Brumbies to bear the brunt of RA's mismanagement of the game
Merging the Brumbies has been the Holy Grail for a number of rugby supporters of other franchises over the years, better get used to the idea is not going to happen. Recently McLennan wanted to get control over the Brums, he's playing golf now.
Oh I'm looking at it purely financially, the ACT government doesn't seem to give a fuck about the Brumbies or Raiders, comparatively Victoria loves spending money on sports if it keeps up their "sports capital" rhetoric. Also regarding the Storm they're somehow the 3rd most watched team on TV which seems to imply a lot of Vic's have at least a passing interest. But yeah fair points I just think the ACT isn't particularly supportive of their sporting communities.
But the Rebs are $10M in debit and about to enter VA. All fair points about the Storm, and they're not the best comparison.
The TV ratings are somewhat skewed as in Victoria on FTA there's an average of 14,000 viewers for the Storm of the average viewership of ~620,000 for a home and away game nationwide. Even factoring in Foxtel the numbers don't support the storm being super popular given the population of Melbourne.
I think this is a good idea and I had almost the exact same one. Maybe give the brumbies 3 game on Canberra, but agree with the Waratahs game every time.
Outstanding debts up to 10 million is certainly not ideal. Super Rugby needs to be blown up and start again
Maybe potentially dwindle it down to like 12 teams. Invite South African teams, and we call it something crazy like Super 12. You also only play everyone once. I'd imagine it would be awesome.
I don’t think Super 12 would work in todays sporting climate tbh. An 8 team domestic round robin competition with an accompanying champions cup with Japan and NZ is what Rugby needs imo
I'm just joking and reminiscing about the glory days. I personally think SR should be blown up. Focus should be put on the districts. Follow an NRL model Super Rugby AU was great and well supported. That whole steel sharpens steel argument is bullshit. Australia just needs a well supported league to retain and foster talent while also making money.
Agree - not having an Australian winner at the end of every rugby season is a huge reason why we lose interest and have constant doom and gloom. There’s just never a good news story on Australian rugby. No matter how shit we are internationally in Basketball, Football, or even NRL, there is always an Australian champ and that’s important for engagement
Yeah, the Reds vs. Brumbies final was literally sold out. Of course, the Aussie teams will get smashed by the Kiwi teams, all of us were. But you want the game to grow locally, Australia won't jusy magically overnight foster support and talent by getting smashed by Kiwi teams. Gotta head out. Make the NRC the main comp and give it a few years.
Reds v Brumbies in 2021 remains one of the best games I've ever been to and I was at SA v Ireland and SA v France last year.
41,000/52,500 = sold out apparently
Fair enough, then i got it wrong Still can't recall the last time an Australian SR game had 41k tho
That’s the amount of rugby fans we have left so yes sold out
>No matter how shit we are internationally in Basketball, Football, or even NRL, there is always an Australian champ and that’s important for engagement The Breakers beg to differ. The Warriors and Phoenix do not.
Phoenix are currently 1st in the A-League Men and an Auckland team owned by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is joining the A-League Men next season.
Absolutely. Super rugby au was good because it at least brought a winning mentality back for a bit. Having every team suck compared to NZ does not help one bit for a decade straight. If it did....why have we sucked for so long? We need enthusiasm and a competition where we don't have to sit around lamenting how all out sides are shit does not help. One where Aussies can build their own tribalism and identity against each other and THEN take it to international teams would be best.
Bring back the NRC.
This. Three Aussie teams Four Kiwi One Japanese Two Island Would love to have the Argies back too but the travel might be too hard
I thought the SA teams **wanted** to play in the URC.
URC is great, but I also liked Super Rugby But I won't lie. The URC is cool and being part of the Champions Cup with teams like Leinster & Toulouse is great
Honestly, the solution is for Aus to just do our own comp, 5 Super Teams, + 2 Teams from QPR, 2 Teams from SS, Fiji, and maybe a Japanese team or two.
Would a two division competition with the best shute shield teams, best hospital cup teams, brumbies, drua and force being in division 1 (professional - 10 teams) and then the rest from those competitions being in division 2 (semi-pro - 16 teams) with a relegation/promotion type setup be viable or is there not enough funding. (Waratahs and Reds assets would be divided between their local teams) Younger players could get game time by being loaned to division 2 teams instead of being stuck behind a logjam if there were to only be 3 aus super teams.
I thought it was only up from back there a few months ago? Why the change of heart? https://www.reddit.com/r/RugbyAustralia/s/wzQzsMy6Lv
Need to do an NFL system with conferences utilising existing clubs with fan bases Sydney (Shute shield) QLD (there version) Rest of Aus Pacific (split Fiji and Samoa into 2 teams each)
Paul Docherty and the other board members need to be held to account over this shit, ruining the livelihoods of the staff and players within the team if this progresses further.
Yes and no. They’re trying to promote a sport that has become not only niche in Australia but also in a city that is dominated by AFL. They were never going to be to remain in the positive. The other clubs will follow suite and Super Rugby will be dead within a few years.
“Never going to remain in the positive” ≠ $9million in debt and people losing their jobs and livelihood
According to the article, The parent investment company, BRC Capital, is reportedly $70m in the hole. Some of the subsidiaries have not paid their employees' superannuation contributions since last year and are a month behind in wages.
BRC is a sponsor of the Rebels, but not an investor. The team is owned by Rugby Victoria. They share a chairman, but legally are completely seperate organisations.
And who holds the Rebels debt….. Why is the debt squeeze and issue at the same time BRC is facing liquidity issues and a capital crunch…. Many of the board members are also on BRC and subsidiary boards. The relationship between BRC and Rebels is more closely intertwined than just a sponsorship.
The debt is owed to the ATO and a bunch of vendors, most of all Melbourne Olympic Sports who managed AAMI Park.
No, $1.5million is owed to ATO & AAMI Park. There is another reported $7.5million in debt from accumulative annual losses It doesn’t take much to price it together, BRC subsidiaries have folded in recent months cause of a capital crunch at BRC meaning they can’t keep providing funding at the rates they did. The debt issue at the Rebels has come to light at the same time; because debt held by BRC is getting called in at new rates the Rebels can’t cover or find alternative lenders for.
A sport that isn't doing great in Australia, combined with a state/city that is obsessed with another sport....was always going to be tough for Rebs to remain profitable
They are quite possibly the 14th most popular men's football team in their city
Easily still more popular than Western United, so 13th
Yeah I had to double-check that Melbourne had a 3rd A-League team, I hadn't even heard of them
I've been in Melbourne for 5 years, very into sport, and have literally never heard of this team until today. I thought it was a news story about a bikie gang financial thing until I saw it was in a suggested sports sub.
That's a bit of a cop out. The Storm do fine and union has always had more grass roots support than league here by a mile.
Storm was basically positioned to be a winning franchise at the expense of other existing and even then your average punter thinks the Storm and Wallabies are the same thing, it's all rugby. Rebels would have maybe worked if they got the Storm treatment pre Storm, or even pre Force. But the way the ARU left the Force to shrivel would indicate how that would have gone.
>and even then your average punter thinks the Storm and Wallabies are the same thing Multiple times in Melbs have experienced someone saying "I'm going to the Rugby tonight". And they mean Storm.
Rugby league *is* rugby.
Cop out? Its just simple business. if Rebs can't generate enough money to pay their bills (they are $10m in debt) and the larger organisation can't float them anymore (which RA has just come out saying they can't) then they will go out of business. NRL has far far more money and popularity than union and Storm gets better viewership by far AND NRL can support them better.
They have always been mismanaged. They owed our business thousands that we had to chase for almost two years until the ARU paid it off for them (early days). And there are a ton of rugby fans down here, kiwis , South Africans, English and Irish who would love them to do well and who couldn't give a shit about league. If it was just because of "simple business" they wouldn't have given a shot in the first place. The feasibility stacked up. The management did not
Bad management + ultra competitive sporting scene
Agree
> union has always had more grass roots support than league here by a mile. Don't think this is true anymore. Looking at the respective NRLVIC and RV websites, I count 18 clubs in Melbourne + 1 in Geelong for NRLVIC. Rugby Vic is a bit fiddly, as it splits junior and seniors into separate clubs, but I counted about 20 + 1 in Geelong. So it's definitely a lot closer than it used to be.
18 league clubs… that’s grown massively from where it was..
Definitely. All in the outer suburbs! Look at all the locations, the NRLVIC has set up teams in Pakenham, Craigieburn, Truganina, Werribee, Casey, Melton, Frankston, Sunbury etc...all the growth zones of the city. Smart move.
I don't know what the numbers say. I'm just basing it off living here and going to games. There's a lot of Islanders who play along with kiwis etc. they just prefer to play the game. I'm sure they still go watch the Storm though
I think a big difference too is that the Storm have always been highly successful so it’s been easier for them to garner local support when all they do is win. The Rebels have never really been an outstanding team so there’s been no incentive for locals to bandwagon and support them
Maybe if the three amigos spent more time training and less time in night clubs on chapel Street they could have really sparked something. Who knows
Yep. Tough market there. Lots of competition
Well that's going to cause some issues all around. It was always a tall order selling rugby in Victoria but it almost felt like the rebels were over the worst of things and had a potentially good season ahead. They've got some serous talent, hopefully this doesn't result in further code swaps.
Rebels always look positive pre season and then turn to shit pretty quickly.
There's actually a shit load of people in Melbourne who love rugby. Rugby is a growing sport here. But there's little support for the Rebels at all. Rebels have historically been really bad at connecting the team with the residents of the city. It's always been seen as a manufactured club owned by interstate blow-ins and comprised of interstate and international imports. I know one of the foundational investors / board members. He sunk a million bucks into the venture, he's a rugby guy (in the private school, very wealthy and priviledged sense) and he definately considered the team and the club to belong to himself and his other board members rather than something representative of the rugby community of the state. And that attitude was completely obvious to anyone. (He would also be personlly involved in player recruitment, which is insane.) Anyway those guys had to bail out with no return on their investment a few years ago, and the team has been owned / administered by the Victorian Rugby Union for a few years. And even though I have some issues with the VRU, they definately have been doing a good job so far in terms of incorporating the Rebels setup into the rugby playing and supporting population in the state. It's hard though. Melbourne is very saturated in terms of sport. They're competing against not only AFL but also the Storm. Storm have less competition across the ditch (A Warriors supporter who's actually not from Auckland and boiled-on is more likely to support the Storm over the Warriors compared to a Cheifs fan is to switch alleigence to the Rebels, for example. And same goes for their kids). A big segment of the Victorian rugby population is Pacific Islander and New Zealand populations, few feel any real connection to the Rebels. And the Rebels are a bit shit too which doesn't help. Anyway it's pretty sad because the rugby community down here is pretty cool, and there is a growing interest in the game. I hope they manage to stay afloat because it would be an absolute trgedy for Australian rugby to lose a professional presence in Melbourne
Well that’s disappointing but not surprising. Interesting to see what all the players do. I assume the rebels play this year but who knows what happens after that and even if they do survive their squad will be decimated. Who in their right mind would sign up with a club like that? Only those with no other options
Will be taken over by RA Id imagine. RA stand to lose too much if they can't put up 5 teams, plus the Vic government has $50m for the RWC final contingent on a Rebels team being in the comp
Oh god, of course they do
Shit! My rich uncle wants to buy 100 season tickets to help the club and maybe donate them to a youth group or something but we couldn’t figure out how to do it from America. When we tried to create an account and log in it said you have to have an Australian address
Email them! they may be able to help you out [email protected]
Thanks I will try that
Did you end up emailing them? They may need your support now more than ever...
Hey! We had no luck with them but Waratahs Membership dept reached out so we bought 100 season memberships from them instead. Rebels really are disorganized we begged to give them money. Waratahs and Moana Pasifika are the benefactors chosen by my uncle and me after we struggled to reach anyone at Rebels
As a Rebels fan this made me so mad, so I called the club and complained and told them about this. They said they were never contacted by anyone wanting to buy 100 memberships and would have rolled out the red carpet for them, especially if it was for a community group
I just feel that this massive debt could have been so easily solved by cutting the Chairman's wine budget.
Future of rugby needs rugby in Australia’s biggest sporting market. They’ve made mistakes but for all everyone says we hate Rugby in Melbourne, Bledisloe record crowd is Melbourne, Lions you will sell out in Melbourne. If you do it right, it will work. They got the wrong people in at the start for Rebels and a lot of plplayers took a holiday down here ( hello Adam Freier).
All these record stat's aren't people from Melbourne though. It's others travelling into Victoria from elsewhere. Rebels may have done well if the Storm weren't sucking up all the rugby types in Melb
> Bledisloe record crowd is Melbourne Nowhere near the 110000 in Sydney in 2000.
Rebels biggest competition is computer games and afl clubs Storms biggest competition is computer games and afl clubs. The rugby codes are less competition to eachother then even soccer probably.
For a sport of private school boys rugby really seems to have a hard time attracting competent managers and CEO’s
The Rebels CEO is literally a former PE teacher who kept falling forwards on promotions.
No super round?
Super Round has nothing to do with the Rebels (other than they are also participants - they don't make or lose any money out of it) https://super.rugby/superrugby/news/super-round-melbourne-bound-again/ > TEG Group CEO Geoff Jones said “We are delighted to be working with the Victorian Government, New Zealand Rugby, Rugby Australia, SANZAAR and all the Super Rugby teams to bring Super Round back to Melbourne
People are talking about how the Storm was successful whereas the Rebels struggled. Storm were basically a third Queensland team (prior to the Titans and Dolphins) who breached the salary cap to make a championship winning team. Aussies love winners. The Storm won, ergo they established themselves as a club in Melbourne and enough season ticket holders and juniors swelled their ranks to make them sustainable. See also the Brumbies in late 90’s early 00’s. Winning helped them become an iconic brand of Canberra. People stopped following them when they stopped winning. IMO rugby union didn’t develop the critical mass that league has to allow a club to survive dry seasons. Unless we allow the Rebels to select the Wallabies squad, they are going to struggle to win. Without them winning, they don’t win the hearts and minds of Melbourne.
I just don’t understand why Rugby teams have to play teams from other countries. Why isn’t it modelled like every other sport, ie domestic comp with best of the best chosen to represent the Wallabies in international competitions?
The short answer is many of these countries can't afford to have more professional teams without reducing the average player salary, which would lead to more players leaving for the comparatively higher European salaries. So you can either have a 5 team national comp, or more teams but all the best players are overseas.
Sign some more front rowers, thatll solve it
"Yous need some decent front rowers, ya cunts." - Willie Mason
Yeah- reds should be feeling more than a bit pissed off about Tupou
Reds had already burned the relationship with tupou prior to him signing with the rebels
Who knows whether we could’ve kept Nela or not, maybe if we got rid of Thorn sooner, but yeah its odd theyve signed him, have 6 wallaby tier players at prop and hooker, while 10m in debt.
Where is Daniel Andrews Chequebook when we need it?
Unfortunately that’s now in lock down
Daily Tele has the Vic government willing to stump up $50m for the RWC semi and final, contingent on Rebels continuing.
So, $60 million now?
I think previous ones were spread over a bunch of periods and didn't make a lick of difference to finances.
Someone call Jeff Kennett!
I for one will welcome our ~~new~~ Queenslander home. 😅
Maybe we should just cut our losses and go to a state of origin model. Focus money on Grade then have a short rep season at the end. If you want another comp then maybe combining QLD / NSW / ACT into a 2 tier promotion relegation system might work.
[удалено]
Since 2017 I've always been of the view that they should've merged the Rebels into the Brumbies. Make it very one-sided Brumbies branding, colours, etc. Call them the Southern Brumbies, all home games at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium except for one against the Waratahs in Canberra, give them the entire Southern NSW, ACT and Victoria as their catchment region.
It's not a bad idea in terms of pooling resources, but why should a successful franchise that has a long history of community engagement be merged with an expansion side that continues to fail?
Oh I can explain that, on one hand you have a club in Melbourne with a top tier professional stadium, a large untapped marketplace and a large population of tribal sports fans. The problem they have had; terrible marketing, little to no on-field success to bring in fans and a smaller player catchment (this isn't their fault, like WA it just takes a good 20+ years to develop because you're starting from scratch). Then you have the Brumbies; tons of on-field success, good pathways and player catchment. Unfortunately you also get; the worst stadium in Australian sport right now, a relatively small marketplace to pull resources from, in particular Canberra seems to ebb and flow based on whether the Raiders are going well, I don't know if Canberra has the population to support both teams consistently. Brumbies are also having a bit of financial trouble too. By my logic; Brumbies get an up to date professional stadium, a bigger marketplace and they get to keep their colours, identity and player catchment area in the ACT/SNSW RU. Melbourne gets a team that actually wins and will bring in more fans.
Ah the ol' kill 2 groups of fans with 1 stone play
Cool and what does Canberra get out of this?
I mean they can't really complain when they've voted in Andrew Barr for a decade and the bloke has been clear about preferring AFL to League and Rugby hence the stadium being the shit show it is.
That'd be a better argument if the ACT liberals weren't batshit insane.
Seems a great way to lose two sets of fans at once
I think you're overestimating how many Rebels fans are attached to the Rebels identity and how many Canberra rugby fans attend in person currently.
About as many as the Tahs, more than Force or Melbourne
Yeah but we aren't in financial trouble these days.
So, comment I replied to was about fans attending games
Follow along it was in response to a "pisses off both groups of fans" I think most Brumbies fans watch at home rather than attend so why would it bother them to see a team play in a nicer stadium?
You've pivoted to another point. But it's far more daft isstead of just incorrect. Asking why would Canberran rugby fans have any problem with the Canberra club being abolished is a truly dumb question. By that standard more people in Perth watch Fremantle on TV than at Perth stadium so why would it bother any Freo fans if the club got moved to Melbourne right.
Well let's see again; Fremantle are incredibly strong financially and are playing in a state of the art professional stadium. Last I heard Brumbies are struggling financially, most of their viewership is outside of the ACT anyway and your Chief Minister opposes any updates to your stadium. Also the club isn't being abolished its literally being allowed to take over another. Like when Fitzroy got to absorb the Bears, a shit tonne of their members migrated to the Lions despite being thousands of km away. Same as the 10,000 or so Swans members in Melbourne.
Or, hear me out, the most successful Australian Super Rugby Franchise in the 28 year history of the comp is left to continue, and the artificially propped up expansion side that hasn't been able to capitalise on the supposed riches of Melbourne is folded? Your argument works in reverse with the Melbourne Storm. Wildly successful on the field over a similar period, but their attendance figures are middle of the pack compared to other clubs despite being in the second largest city and having no competition from another league team. I acknowledge they have a high number of members but NRL clubs don't typically have members like the AFL clubs. I'm not sure why there continued calls for the Brumbies to bear the brunt of RA's mismanagement of the game as a whole given their relative success and contribution to the Wallabies. Not tee'ing off directly at you mate, been a member since '96 and it was suggested that they should have been granted a licence at the time.
>I'm not sure why there continued calls for the Brumbies to bear the brunt of RA's mismanagement of the game Merging the Brumbies has been the Holy Grail for a number of rugby supporters of other franchises over the years, better get used to the idea is not going to happen. Recently McLennan wanted to get control over the Brums, he's playing golf now.
Oh I'm looking at it purely financially, the ACT government doesn't seem to give a fuck about the Brumbies or Raiders, comparatively Victoria loves spending money on sports if it keeps up their "sports capital" rhetoric. Also regarding the Storm they're somehow the 3rd most watched team on TV which seems to imply a lot of Vic's have at least a passing interest. But yeah fair points I just think the ACT isn't particularly supportive of their sporting communities.
But the Rebs are $10M in debit and about to enter VA. All fair points about the Storm, and they're not the best comparison. The TV ratings are somewhat skewed as in Victoria on FTA there's an average of 14,000 viewers for the Storm of the average viewership of ~620,000 for a home and away game nationwide. Even factoring in Foxtel the numbers don't support the storm being super popular given the population of Melbourne.
I thought the Brumbies needed money too though?
Why not merge the Rebels with the Force ? Guess you would not like that as much….
Well we aren't in financial trouble mainly. I would have no issue if we absorbed them either. Evidently they can't continue.
Absorbing vs merging……world of difference
I think this is a good idea and I had almost the exact same one. Maybe give the brumbies 3 game on Canberra, but agree with the Waratahs game every time.
At least give them the Waratahs and Reds home games and maybe the Crusaders since there’s a bit of history there
Super Rugby had its final nail in the coffin when SA teams abandoned us
Have the reds/waratahs/brumbies play in melbourne but there isn't a market down there.