Roar Rookie
Joined October 2009
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Since 12 November 2009, Rod Maqueen, along with the rest of the Melbourne Rebels leadership and management team, has put a lot of emphasis…
If I was Graham Henry, I’d be a concerned man right now. Looking at the stats and the amazing performance of the All Blacks…
The final building blocks are falling into place for the Melbourne Rebels, as ‘we’ now have 30 players contracted to the club. We have…
At 33 years of age, the question begs asking: could Brock Edward Lesnar be the most over-hyped MMA fighter ever? With a total of…
[caption id="attachment_24710" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="1984 Grand Slam Wallabies Mark Ella, Steve Williams, current coach Robbie Deans, Alan Jones, Roger Gould, Simon Poidevin and Andrew…
Herewith, an open letter I have mailed to Premier John Brumby and James Marlino to have the Cage Fighting ban lifted. Unfortunately, the letter…
With just hours to go, the time is right to pour some petrol on those propaganda flames. Once again, I found myself reflecting on…
For just over two years we’ve heard speculation around the ‘if’ and ‘when’ regarding Melbourne being awarded the fifteenth franchise in Super Rugby. The…
Wow, strong words. You forget that a lot of Victorian ‘produced’ players are playing elsewhere in Australia as they didn’t have their own Super team? Based on your logic those blokes, including the current Wallaby captain should then return to Victoria?
Rebels foreign player quota is a blessing
Check out The Australian – He’s a regular over there!
Ella's tirades at Rebels a case of sour grapes
Also, with next year being ‘world cup’ year, most of the ‘big name’ international players will be hanging their hopes on making the squad and representing their country. And we all know Rugby, unlike Soccer frown on players not playing in their country of origin, thus making it even tougher to spin the recruitment ball. With that said, the last thing you want Rebels to be is a retirement village for players who see it as a healthy alternative to Japan/Europe.
Ella's tirades at Rebels a case of sour grapes
All valid points, and thus the reason I noted I do follow his articles. In this situation though I just feel, it was all done with an aim to unsettle the progress we’re making in Victoria. He was really shooting from the hip, especially since he didn’t give much chance for Rebels Management to get their ducks in a row with regards to negotiation and announcments.
If anything, Mark should know getting players on the field is only half the battle won. What about investment in in the longevity on Victorian Rugby? What about creating a legacy of player with character, players who go beyond just performing on the field? Sometimes a person’s character is more valuable than the points they score on the field, and I would rather have a ‘fringe player at best’ as Mark branded them, develop into tomorrow’s Rebels leader, than have a leader in the team only looking after himself.
Ella's tirades at Rebels a case of sour grapes
Here’s a rundown of the most dangerous sports in the world, considering injury and mortality rates:
10 Rugby
9 Cave Diving
8 Cheer leading (???)
7 Motorcycling
6 Fishing
5 Rock Climbing
4 Golf
3 Horse Riding
2 Base Jumping
1 Bowls
1. LAWN BOWLS: Forget those UFC pussies, lawn bowls is for REAL men (and women!). Going off the number of deaths per player, it is the world’s most dangerous sport, killing literally thousands worldwide every year. Its hardcore competitors will stop at nothing in pursuit of victory. If you’re one of the lucky ones that escapes death, there are thousands more who end up with dislocated ankles, broken hips, torn knees or who simply keel over with a heart attack or a stroke due to the incredibly stressful nature of the game. Either that or it’s down to most of the competitors being over 85 and lugging great big balls around.
Taken from : http://www.sportingo.com/all-sports/a10042_ten-most-dangerous-sports-world
Challenging the ban on Cage Fighting in Victoria
Due to the negative publicity the term ‘cage’ gets, I have recommended as part of the ban review to look at changing the name ‘Cage Fighting’, and rather refer to it as ‘Ultimate Fighting’ in doing so people won’t be too critical on it. a lot of viewers have been exposed to it through UFC events without even knowing they’re watching what was traditionally called ‘cage fighting’.
Challenging the ban on Cage Fighting in Victoria
Hi there Ghost, have you seen any of the UFC events? As a matter of fact Sydney is hosting the very first UFC event in Australia this coming Sunday. They fight in an ‘octagon’, and the slang term for this is ‘Cage’. Thus it’s not like a chicken cage or rabbit cage or any other cage which might spring to mind. It’s pure Mixed Martial Arts, with rules and regulations just like any other sport. Hope this helps
Challenging the ban on Cage Fighting in Victoria
I’m sure Jantjies will walk back into the team due to the fact that he was 1st pick at full back up to the point where he broke his leg. No with having said that, I don’t believe he’s the best for the position. The debate was always ‘either Stefan, or Krichner’ -Stefan’s got the ability, but will he last to the World Cup, and frankly, his errors lost the sharks the Super 14 in the last Semi, as well as the Currie Cup semi. Krichner is young, talented, and in the long term has what it takes to make the spot his one. On top of that, he’s a player of colour, which is an added bonus! Give him the position, keep Pienaar on the bench for Du Preez, and Morne at fly half.
Who can fill the boots of Francois Steyn?
Ever the optimist!
Yeh, I definitely don’t see how the introduction of Union to Melbourne will do Storm any good. A few foreigners like myself go to the games and support it because they have oval balls and pass backwards! Point is the schools, universities around Melbourne have Union, and that’s the market the VRU will be interested in retaining. I don’t want to go into a debate on which code is best (don’t want to state the obvious 😛 ), but if I was a 20year old player faced with the option of playing club League and one day being included in the Kangaroos, who frankly play nobody but England on occasion, or the Wallabies with a tight international schedule – it would be an easy choice to make.
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
The Storm is a team of ‘imports’, and they’re pretty well embraced! 😛
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
I’ve seen this argument over and over. ‘a new franchise will dilute the pool of existing players’ – While it rings true, in the long term what the additional franchise does is give younger school, club players hope of reaching the top level of the game. Thus instead of them moving to League (Which so many of the Vic Schools boys does), they stay in Union, and their interest, abilities are retained, especially considering that now they will actually get paid for it if they reach the top-tier.
It’s a growing pain, not a step backwards. I can assure you, while The Force might have diluted the existing franchises a wee bit, the total amount of professional players, semi-professional players have increased dramatically. Give the young guys time to come into form and grow up with the current infrastructure. The Brumbies and Force are young teams, and have only been around for 1 generation. I think ARU have reached a point of go/no-go where they needed to take the risk of diversifying in ‘foreign’ WA and VIC markets, and in the long term breeding a new generation of players. They’re doing the right thing here, even though they’re not producing instant results.
The big secret here is the ARU is not as dependant on the local market for support as much as the League for instance. With global tv rights etc, them getting an even share of the profits (Compared to Super 14) they can get away with less than pleasing crowd attendance until performance picks up.
The wheel will turn! Analyst Howard signing off.
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
JF, this is already the case in SA, Vodacom Cup and Super 14 starts in Feb, with the Currie Cup ending 24-Oct and the ‘away leg’ starts for the Springboks until end of November – They don’t need a lot of motivation to show up at rugby games over there 😛 The Currie Cup semi finals are showing life on Fox on Saturday, and both Newlands and Kingspark are sold out.
Australian rugby needs to strengthen third tier
What’s to stop ARU from pulling pacific island teams into the national comp? Look at League featuring a Kiwi team, and with Netball they also have multi-national teams playing in the Australian competition?
Australian rugby needs to strengthen third tier
I agree, the SARU president already indicated that it’s not likely to go SA’s way. They can be stubourn all they want, they won’t get ARU of an NZ swing vote.
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
Fox,
I don’t know any South African supporters or Ex-pats who think it’s a good idea! And I know a lot 😛
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
True true. Realistically though- The 2007 Mazda Cup as it was called put a big dent in ARU’s pocket due to the financial losses. I think although the ARU had good intentions with the launch, they went about it the wrong way. Only one game a week was shown on live TV, with one re-run on Sundays – This made it pretty difficult for even a full fledged supporter to become enthusiastic about the product. What they should have done, or could possibly do in the future is get Foxtel, or One HD on board, advertise, and market the crap out of it! Then they’ll draw crowds, turn profits. I’m surprised at how many people didn’t even know about the Mazda Cup, and that Melbourne competed in the finals (David Croft was a legend in the season).
Australian rugby needs to strengthen third tier
Initially there was 5 bids for looking to become the 15th franchise in Super Rugby. This must imply that there’s 5 clubs with the infrastructure to compete in a domestic cup. So the solution in my opinion would be – After the Super 15, towards the second half or the TriNations, run a domestic cup featuring the 5 Super 15 teams, along side the 4/5 Super bidders – Home and away, with semi’s and a final – That’s 16weeks of good quality rugby!
Is this so far fetched?
Australian rugby needs to strengthen third tier
yep! You’ll only play the teams in your own confrence twice – home and away.
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
The foundation of South African rugby success is the fact that they have a multi-tier system retaining the interest of players from school level. They recently launched ‘Varsity Cup’, which is similar to the UK, and US version of Monday Night football, with most games played on Mondays, when there’s no sports to watch. The next level up from this is Club Rugby, and then the Vodacom Cup (Which runs concurrent with the Super 14) which is a breeding ground for young players. As the Super 14 comes to a close, the ‘best of’ Vocacom Cup players unite with the returning Super 14 players to play in the Currie Cup.
Thus, you have School Rugby, Varsity Rugby, Club Rugby, Vodacom Cup, Currie Cup, Super 14, in that order. Saying there’s merit in adding a 6th South African team needs to be justified by their team performances in any/all levels outside of the Super 14. Unfortunately for them at this point in time this is non-existent, their local teams struggle in the Vodacom Cup, and play in the B-League of the Currie Cup. This makes it evident that, when taking the step up to Super 15, they will be wooden spooners for the foreseeable future.
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
I think the biggest concern was to have the competition start and finish within a period which won’t impact the ANZ Cup, Currie Cup and TriNations – Expanding it too much too soon would have reduced the local competitions to second-grade match-ups. BUT, with Argentinia joining the TriNations it could be a different ball game. The reason I say this is because they’ll be able to play 2 games a weekend, and reduce the 10 week stretch while incorporating an additional team.
Melbourne Super 15 bid has local support
Not sure if they’ll allow promotion on this page- We’re on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/rebelarmy
also, you’re welcome to email me at Neville at rebel-army.com
I’d love to hear more 🙂
Rebels foreign player quota is a blessing