Melbourne Rebels Continue Advertising Assault on AFL Superstar Lance Franklin
FORMER Wallaby Drew Mitchell has hit out at Melbourne Rebels for their latest advertising assault on AFL superstar Lance Franklin.
The Rebels have gone after one of the AFL’s biggest names following Franklin’s criticism (on Twitter) of the Super Rugby club last year when they released his Wallaby mate James O’Connor.
It all kicked off with a prickly Valentine’s Day message to Franklin in the Herald Sun last week.
And the Super Rugby club has ramped up the attack further with another ad aimed at Franklin, which takes a thinly veiled swipe at the former Hawk’s supposed lack of loyalty for leaving AFL premiers Hawthorn to join the Sydney Swans.
The second Rebels ad reads: “We ran an ad for you on Valentine’s Day but we haven’t heard back from you. Last year, we weren’t the best of mates. You thought we treated a ‘buddy’ of yours like a #scapegoat and took to Twitter to talk about it.
“We didn’t realise it was #Poorform to have the club coming out clean but we understand now.
“Perhaps our grasp of loyalty was a little different to yours. We really are opposites, aren’t we? We wanted to put the club above the individual, but you … well you get it. We now get it too, we had it wrong, and there’s no point swanning around about it.
“Anyway, in 2014, all of us here at the Rebels want to right our wrongs. We want to win more games, and make the headlines for the right reasons. And that includes making peace (we hope) with you. Let’s call it a #REBdepmption, of sorts.
The Melbourne Rebels’ ad.Source: Twitter
“We’re going to come up and visit in March — maybe we could catch up? Not everybody down here thinks you were disloyal in moving up there. You have Bondi, and we have the Yarra: we know where we’d rather swim, plus you clearly know a lot about rugby union — it must be good to be right amongst the hub of rugby in Australia.
Speak soon, the Rebels.”
Mitchell — soon to be a teammate of O’Connor’s at Toulon when the ex-Rebel joins the French club next season — didn’t see the funny side today, describing it as a “disappointing tactic” and urging Melbourne to “just play footy”.
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