Why the Rebels will win the hearts of Melbournians

You can’t avoid the difficulty the Melbourne Rebels have got in getting recognised in Melbourne. Recently I got the chance to visit their home ground and watch them train. I caught a cab to Visy Park and walked in the front entrance to the reception desk of the Carlton Football Club.

“Hi”, I ventured to the receptionist. “Hi”, she said back. So far so good.

Emboldened, I continued with: “Can you tell me where I might find Vic Rugby?”

“Who?,” sez she.

My confidence dipped.

This was going to be tougher than I thought. “Umm, Victorian Rugby?”

She looked at me like I’d said I had an appointment with Harold Holt. “You know, the Melbourne Rebels?”.

“Oh right!” Ms Carlton looked relieved. “Just go back out the door, turn right and keep going, they’re round that way somewhere”. Given that I could see the team warming up on the main ground through the plate glass over her left shoulder, this was somewhat dispiriting.

But being a good Catholic-school boy, I did as I was told, and five minutes later found myself fruitlessly wandering at the extremes of the carpark, between a stormwater drain and a construction zone.

Clearly this wasn’t Rebels Headquarters.

Eventually I called my man in Amsterdam, Josh Philpot, the Rebels Rugby Manager, and told him where I was. Philpot laughed the knowing laugh of a man who grew up playing rugby as a fringe sport in Adelaide, and directed me back to the front entrance.

In a breathtakingly simple maneuvre, I walked straight past Ms Carlton, through a set of sliding doors, and was immediately standing on the terraces looking out onto the hallowed turf of the mighty Carlton Blues.

It was such a stunning transition that I squinted into the sun for a moment, half expecting to see Bruce Doull sprinting down the flank, or Alex Jesaulenko flying above the pack.

But instead, here was the newest team in Australian rugby, the result of decades of hope and hard work by Victorian rugby stalwarts – the fresh-out-of-the-box Melbourne Rebels.

I slowly walked around the terraces, listening to the shouts of the players and soaking up the atmosphere. It doesn’t matter what code you prefer, the feel of a great old stadium transcends all boundaries.

The terraces at Princes Park have the feel of an old European football ground, and the changing levels of the roofline have faint echoes of Murrayfield.

Philpot met me at the boundary as I hopped the fence onto the turf and we headed down under the stadium to see the Rebels rooms and gym.

Several hundred thousand dollars of ARU, VRU and Victorian government funds have been sunk into the renovation of some defunct space below the stands to provide the Rebels with facilities worthy of the nations newest pro football team.

Walking off the playing surface down a narrow tunnel under the stand, you feel like you’re about to enter some sort of dungeon. Instead, you emerge into a cool, spacious fitness centre with all the latest equipment.

No stone has been left unturned and you can’t help but notice the massive Rebels emblem on the floor below the squat rack as if to say “Just remember who you’re pushing that tin for son”.

Around the corner is a physio room, and a set of brand new change rooms with each players alter-ego depicted in a series of pictures sticky-taped to the lockers, obviously by teammates.

Predictably and amusingly, Greg Sommerville’s locker has a roughly printed piece of A4 paper with Star Wars guru Yoda on it.

Nearby is an maze of PVC pipe which runs to the hot/cold pools, massive 6 foot deep bathtubs which players use for recovery. Gone are the old days of buying 20 bags of ice from the local servo.

Wandering around, I hear the slap-slap of gloves on mitts and poke my head around the corner to see where the noise is coming from.

What I get is a close up of Welsh import Gareth Delve doing what a court would call GBH, but the Rebels call rehab. Delve is a fearsome sight at 6’3” and 114kg, and the fans will be hoping he can recapture his form for Bath where he was a fearsome, Palu-esque ball runner in open play.

Back out on the ground, we finally get a close up of the team session which is going at full bore, and I notice two things. First, it is unfeasibly hot and humid for Melbourne, the weather feels more like Darwin. Second, despite the heat, is the focus and intensity of the drills.

The players move from station to station with calm purpose, but when the whistle blows, they’re all urgency and focused talk. “My man there! Yours on the outside!”, “Wide ball, wide ball!”, “Chase back boys!”, “With you Roons!”, and so on.

They look good.

Particularly they look big, and fit. At least that’s what I tell Wallabies coach Robbie Deans later when I’m sitting up in the stands watching not too far from where he and Wallabies manager and 1991 World Cup hero Bob Egerton are monitoring the session.

“What did you see out there mate?” Robbie asked. Good question, I thinks to myself. Self, what did you see exactly? And how do you not sound totally ignorant in responding to one of the better coaches of the modern era?

Well Robbie, now that I’ve had time to think about it, here’s your answer.

First, the Rebels are not a small side. Backs like Stirling Mortlock, Mark Gerrard and Luke Rooney are up there with the big boys in the comp, and forwards like Delve, Al Campbell and Rodney Blake aren’t lightweights either.

Second, they look very fit. Ripped too.

In the session I witnessed, they moved quickly, with purpose, and despite obviously being tired, they didn’t look tired. One wonders whether master coach Macqueen has sent his charges to the Richie McCaw School Of Positive Body Language.

Third, the passing and handling during the opposed session was a bit off. The pattern was familiar early season fare – one slightly off pass high or behind, the next player adjusts a bit to compensate and throws a worse pass, and the third player drops it cold. Most teams work through it fairly quickly and get back into the groove, but the Rebels might take a bit longer as a totally new outfit.

Last, they were perhaps a half second slow setting their plays off phase ball. Whereas a tight team will slot seamlessly into spaces, and hit their balls and running lines exactly right, the Rebels look like they’re still thinking about it.

That’s understandable, they probably are, mostly because they come from all four corners of the globe. They’re not totally without combination – Delve and Mark Bakewell were together at Bath; Jarrod Saffy and conditioner Mark Andrews were at the St George Dragons; and Damien Hill coached Laurie Weeks, Tim Davidson and Lachie Mitchell at Sydney University.

So for an outfit which hasn’t even spent 6 months together, and which is building their training ground around themselves as they go, they’re doing alright.

In particular they’ve got a great set of mentors on their coaching staff. Macqueen of course, but also former Test centre Nathan Grey as skills coach, former St George Dragons conditioner Mark Andrews and the two men who do most of the actual whistling and coaching direction, former Bath coach Bakewell, and ex-Sydney Uni and Suntory coach Hill.

I caught up with Hill at the end of the session.

“We’re making small steps” he said. “Last week’s trial we improved slightly on the one previously, and that’s what we’re looking to do in the next couple of games.”

“Our set piece has been good, but our execution in the backs hasn’t been up to scratch, so we’ll hopefully improve in that area so we can get our first phase on the front foot and then we look to play from there”.

“We’re lucky to have the senior guys like Stirling around. He’s been excellent for us off the field, and we’re looking to keep giving him some (game) time and work out where he’s at. And really, our medical staff, the doctors, physios and trainers deserve huge congratulations for getting these guys fit and ready to compete.”

“Our young guys are going well and we’re optimistic, but we’ve got a couple of big steps coming up, particularly against the Crusaders. Then we’ll know where we are”.

Hill then took off for a meeting with Macqueen and I was left back where I started, right outside the plate glass doors of Carlton HQ looking across the now empty grass of Visy Princes Park.

There’s something awesome about standing in an empty stadium. It’s as if history and potential come together, the ghosts of the past looking over their shoulders to the unborn stars of the future.

This is how it feels at Visy Park, as though the ghosts of Weary Dunlop and Nicky Barr are looking down on Stirling Mortlock and Gareth Delve, waiting to see what hell their modern descendants are about to unleash on Super Rugby.

I took a final deep breath of the atmosphere and then headed out past Ms Carlton, through the carpark and hailed a cab to take me back to the city.

Melbourne might not know they have a rugby team yet. But you get the feeling that it won’t be long before the Rebels are on the back page.