Melbourne allowed up to 10 foreigners for Super 15 debut

Melbourne allowed up to 10 foreigners for Super 15 debut

January 04, 2010 .

Melbourne will be allowed to recruit up to 10 foreign players for their entry to the expanded Super 15 rugby competition in 2011.

The Australian Rugby Union on Monday announced significant foreign-player concessions for Melbourne to give the franchise every chance of being competitive in their debut season.

The ARU Foreign Player Policy allows a Super Rugby province to contract up to two overseas players: one marquee signing who has already qualified for another nation and a development player who could qualify for Australian selection under the IRB's three-year residency regulation.

If a province does not sign a marquee player it can contract two development players.

But the ARU board has eased the existing Foreign Player Policy for Melbourne only, granting them permission to sign up to 10 players to their 30-man roster.

AAP

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...002381,00.html

ha, the ability of JON to deflect bad publicity is forever admirable..

Is it ironic that a media release like this was made in a week when article after article on the fledgling Melbourne team's investor issues.


What JON has done here is ignore the recent reports about investors pulling out and move on to another topic about the melbourne recruitment, his basically said im not going to substantiate your dribble articles, this melbourne team is moving ahead.

Now you can smite JON all you want, but half the job of running a sporting organisation is PR and he does a pretty good job of deflecting negative press and turning it into a somewhat 'positive'.

As apposed to the Force who got how many concessions?

(referring to Jarans post)

i think its a bit silly that they get 10 what happens to us if some of our players go there and we already struggled recruiting this year are we allowed that...we should be!

So they've got 10 slots. Given the depth in Australian rugby they'll need a hooker (or 2), a lock (or 2), a fly-half, an inside centre, a winger and a full-back at least.

Any ideas?

please, dont even start to whinge about the Force's recruiting dilemma, you say you didnt get a foreign player concession, lets not forget how the Reds were plundered in those initial years, you think it was hard been a force supporter, try been a reds supporter.

Yeah in one way it might seem to make more sense to allow all the teams to have a foreign player concession and reduce melbournes quouta, but at the same time the other 4 teams have had academy and recruitment programs in place for years. This is a luxury that the Melbourne side doesnt have, if the ARU were to grant the foreign concession to all the other teams, then its a slap in the face to all the academy players, watching there hopeful position filled by a foreign imports.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by James

So they've got 10 slots. Given the depth in Australian rugby they'll need a hooker (or 2), a lock (or 2), a fly-half, an inside centre, a winger and a full-back at least.

Any ideas?

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i expect to see the majority of positions filled by journeyman saffas, kiwis, islanders and maybe a argentinian.

Any dreams of getting some big name player like Chabal, Wilkinson, BOD or Gavin Hanson are very very unlikely. No international player is going to move to Australia in the RWC year.

Queensland got decimated because there were NO recruitment measures in place when the Force started and because there was something horribly smelly at the upper levels of QRU.

And it can't be too bad over here. How many have gone back to Qld? 1?

What's the make-up of the 10 foreign players? 5 marquee players and 5 development players, or 9 marquee players and 1 development player?

Either way, I hope Melbourne's backers have deep pockets to pay these guys. Oh wait, that'll have been assured during the bidding procedure. :sarcastic:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travelling_gerry

Queensland got decimated because there were NO recruitment measures in place when the Force started and because there was something horribly smelly at the upper levels of QRU.

And it can't be too bad over here. How many have gone back to Qld? 1?

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ah there were actually recruitment measures in place, im not defending the QRU im just saying its a bit rich for a Force fan to whinge about the recruitment process since they had a pretty good dam couple of years with third party sponsors and the like..

Regardless this isnt about the past so it shouldnt have even been brought up, this is about the new melbourne team and there concession to recruit foreign player, i distinctly believe this will greatly assist in thwarting the ransacking that occured during the early years of the Force.

Even without the foreign player concession, the impact would have been less then the Force inception due to the fact that there is a larger playing pool in the country to recruit from.

you are correct TOCC,had the Force been allowed to import overseas players,the "plundering" of the reds would not have been on the scale it was

and the bigger player pool is due to the Force....

In the interests of a worthwhile S15 comp long term, would something like the (and I hesitate to say this) AFL draft system, where melb can trade some of their 10 marquee (os) places for existing players in other Aust s14 squads........

Might help with the $ involved for melb and compensate others for "decimation"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by travelling_gerry

and the bigger player pool is due to the Force....

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im not sure what you think im trying to say, what i am saying is that this foreign concession policy will make small inroads into avoiding the pillaging from other teams.

Im also saying that Force force fans should be aware that they werent the only ones disadvantaged by not having such a rule in place when the Force was created, the other provinces were hurt as well, reds especially.

On top of that, i think its fair that only Melbourne receive the special dispensation as the rest of the unions have established academy and development programs in place which Melbourne doesnt.



What we need to realise, is that come 2011, there will be potentially 14players inelegible for the Wallabies plying there trade in Australia, on top of that there is another potential 4 who are yet to reach elegibility for Australia.

We could realistically have 18 inelegible players starting across the 5 S14 sides, this is a major reason as to why i dont think the other provinces should expand on the two 'foreign quoute' posititons that they have now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Timbo

In the interests of a worthwhile S15 comp long term, would something like the (and I hesitate to say this) AFL draft system, where melb can trade some of their 10 marquee (os) places for existing players in other Aust s14 squads........

Might help with the $ involved for melb and compensate others for "decimation"

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The only problem with this is that the current S14 teams have no say in where a player can go once he is out of contract, the only way this could work is if the player is still under-contract, im not to sure of the rules but i believe somewhere under IRB regulations such a 'trade' is against the rules. On top of that, i dont see any of the Australian sides releasing any of there players who are still undercontract.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TOCC

Im also saying that Force force fans should be aware that they werent the only ones disadvantaged by not having such a rule in place when the Force was created, the other provinces were hurt as well, reds especially.

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Reds fans weren't disadvantaged; they had a whole new team to support.

At least now the Reds will not be the bottom of the log Aus team