Melbourne awarded 15th Super rugby team

[Endurance]

congrats to melbourne, who will be their first 2 signings barnes and elmson ?..
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Christian Lealiifano will be one of the first signed.. I'd say a few League and AFL players as well, maybe more as draw cards in the same way Karmichael Hunt with the AFL.

[travelling_gerry]

November 12, 2009 - 11:59AM
The ARU will lobby for concessions to allow Melbourne to recruit as many as 10 foreign players for the city's entry into an expanded Super 15 rugby competition in 2011.

The concessions would help prevent Australia's four established franchises from being depleted like the Queensland Reds were following player raids by the Western Force before their inclusion in the 2006 tournament.

Ending months of uncertainty, independent arbitrators on Wednesday granted Melbourne the 15th licence ahead of South Africa's Southern Kings.

The decision came as a "big relief" to ARU chief John O'Neill and sparked great excitement in Australian rugby ranks.

"This is a vote for commonsense," O'Neill told reporters in Dublin, ahead of Australia's grand slam Test with Ireland on Sunday.

The Super 15 will comprise five teams from each of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in a new-look conference-style format, with the competition running for 19 weeks virtually simultaneously to the NRL and AFL seasons.

Significantly, because of the new home-and-away system, there will be 20 all-Australian local derbies each season.

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans and captain Rocky Elsom both welcomed Melbourne's successful bid - which ultimately edged out the Eastern Cape hopefuls because "the difference in broadcasting revenue between having a team in Melbourne versus having a team in Port Elizabeth was between a $15 million and $20 million cost to SANZAR", according to O'Neill.

"It can't help but help Australian rugby. It's a fantastic outcome. The profile of the game will just escalate," Deans said.

"You've got rugby across the calendar year. You've got not only rugby, but local derbies, domestic rugby.

"Those two points alone are enormous. Easily said, but huge value.

"It's more top-end rugby and the reality is that players tend to be as good as the competitions they come out of and we've now got a top-end competition that will run from the start of the year to the finish.

"You can't better that to put us on a level pegging."

Elsom said: "It's a big win for all parties. It's really important to have another team and I can't see too many down points of having a team in Melbourne."

Australia wasn't represented in this year's Super 14 finals, but O'Neill and ARU high-performance unit manager David Nucifora are confident the world's third-ranked rugby nation has the necessary player resources for a fifth franchise, in addition to the NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies, the Reds and the Force.

"There's about 100 Australian players playing offshore in the northern hemisphere at the moment, so that's quite a few," Nucifora said.

O'Neill said the proposed concessions - which the ARU board has yet to approve - centre on granting Melbourne an increase in the number of foreign players on their books.

Franchises are currently allowed a maximum of two overseas imports, but O'Neill is proposing that Melbourne's anticipated 30-man squad be permitted "say up to 10 (foreigners) initially with that being phased out over an agreed period".

"It would only be a concession for Melbourne and only in the start-up phase," he said.

"The idea is to populate this franchise with Australian players and to give the national team, the national coach and selectors a much bigger talent pool from which to choose the Wallabies.

"We could give preference to some Argentinean players - because we are keen to get Argentina into the Four Nations sooner rather than later - and Pacific Island players.

"So what we're trying to do is set in place a policy framework that will lessen the impact on the poaching of players from other franchises.

"The only note of reality that you've got to inject into that is that there are players coming off contract in 2010 and we will be looking to protect the existing franchises as much as we can.

"But, equally, players who are coming off contract will be entitled to look around."

O'Neill anticipates Melbourne will be fully functional, with a chief executive and coach in place, by March next year.


http://www.watoday.com.au/breaking-n...2.html?page=-1

[Stone Cold]

Inaugural captain? Rocky Elsom? Berrick Barnes? Scott Fava (will have to be in the side to complete all franchises anyway)?

vBookie - start your engines!

[James]

Inaugural captain? Rocky Elsom? Berrick Barnes? Scott Fava (will have to be in the side to complete all franchises anyway)?

vBookie - start your engines!

Dan Vickerman inaugural captain returning to Australia for a 2 year contract (maybe).

[AndyS]

So for the first match against them, will we need a practice session to properly co-ordinate our post-match rendition of Bowie's "Rebel, Rebel"?

[travelling_gerry]

Greg Growden Chief Rugby Correspondent | November 13, 2009

DUBLIN: Commonsense has prevailed with SANZAR granting Melbourne the 15th Super rugby franchise and Australia a fifth province, which is scheduled to be operating within four months.

SANZAR board member and Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill, speaking in Dublin where he is with the Wallabies, said it was a ''momentous day'' for Australian rugby, with the decision, made by an independent panel, bound to dramatically boost public and commercial interest in the code.

''Clearly, we think it is the right decision for SANZAR and Super rugby, but it's a big relief,'' O'Neill said. ''The process has been a long one and going to arbitration was not without risk. For Australian rugby, it is a fantastic step forward …''

The panel, comprising of former All Blacks World Cup-winning captain David Kirk and retired New Zealand High Court judge Barry Paterson, decided that Melbourne should receive the licence ahead of the Southern Kings from Port Elizabeth in South Africa for the expanded tournament, which begins in 2011.

The panel ruled that although the Southern Kings were more advanced in ''business and financial planning'', Melbourne was the more alluring bid because of ''the benefits of geographical location and commercial value to SANZAR''.

Working heavily in Melbourne's favour was that the franchise will play in a five-team Australian conference, thus avoiding the enormous amount of travel involved if the South African province had been chosen. The conference will involve 20 all-Australian local derbies in a Super rugby tournament from February to August.

The impact of Fox Sports paying much higher broadcasting rights, providing Melbourne won the licence, was also crucial.

''Fox Sports have stepped up to the plate in a very significant way,'' O'Neill said. ''The arbitrators didn't ignore the financial benefit of Melbourne over Port Elizabeth.

''The difference in broadcasting revenue in having a team in Melbourne was between $US15 million and $US20m [$16.4m to $21.3m] over five years, and the increase in costs in having the team in Port Elizabeth was about $NZ720,000 [$571,000] per annum.''

O'Neill said the ARU board was keen to have the Melbourne franchise, which will be privately owned, being fully operational by the end of next March.

The lead-up to the decision involved endless bickering between various Victorian business consortiums, who wanted to run the new team. But O'Neill said the ''different parties have come together … some of the friction seems to have abated''.

''Various people including Harold Mitchell, Kevin Maloney, Craig Dunn and Bob Dalziel have got themselves into a consortium, and the engagement with them is now directly with the ARU,'' he said.

''The team structure can be put into place very quickly, while the Victorian Government remains enormously supportive … and we are looking for some financial assistance from them. We can get rolling. It doesn't take long to register the company and populate it with shareholders. We have a draft licence agreement and draft shareholders agreement ready to go.''

The Melbourne consortium will also give the team its name.

To help the new team lure players, the ARU will give Melbourne dispensation, including in its first season being able to sign up to 10 imported players including men from Argentina, the Pacific Islands, and Australians playing for northern hemisphere clubs.

''We will be looking to protect the existing franchises as much as we can, but equally players who are coming off contract will be entitled to look around,'' O'Neill said.


http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...615126515.html

[Burgs]

"To help the new team lure players, the ARU will give Melbourne dispensation, including in its first season being able to sign up to 10 imported players including men from Argentina, the Pacific Islands, and Australians playing for northern hemisphere clubs."

Pretty sure that is a desire rather than written in stone at this stage?

[travelling_gerry]

By Jim Tucker and Jon Geddes
November 13, 2009 .Wallaby Berrick Barnes head-hunted as the potential skipper of Melbourne's new Super 15 side which could be boosted by up to ten international stars and rugby league's top young guns.

Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones says champion All Blacks five-eighth Dan Carter should be top of the list of recruits for the new team which was yesterday given the green light to enter the expanded tournament in 2011.
The new team will trigger an aggressive recruitment campaign from early next year with more than $4 million in contract funds from the ARU.

Melbourne-born Wallaby skipper Rocky Elsom, Paris-based Mark Gasnier, leading Argentine utility back Juan Martin Hernandez and former All Black prop Carl Hayman are also certain to be on Melbourne's wish list.

Barnes signed a two-year deal with the ARU this year and will play for the Waratahs next season. But he has an option allowing him to move provinces after 2010.

He is the ideal face to market a new franchise and his leadership was recognised in his naming as Wallaby vice-captain of the Grand Slam tour before injury forced him home.

"We could allow the number of foreign players to go up to 10 initially and be phased out over an agreed period," said ARU CEO John O'Neill.

Jones said Melbourne needed to build their team around high- profile players and Carter would be the ideal recruit.

Playing alongside the All Blacks ace would be invaluable experience for a young Australian player, he said.

"And if they can't get Carter they should go after Matt Giteau," he said.

While luring Carter across the Tasman would be an expensive exercise, Jones said that was the reality of the situation if the team was to be successful.

"You need to bring talent in and to do that you need money-- they need to get some really good corporate sponsors in," Jones said.

And Jones said the first forward Melbourne should chase is ex-Test second-rower Dan Vickerman, who is currently studying at Cambridge.

He identified current Wallaby stars Will Genia, Benn Robinson and Cliffy Palu as other players Melbourne should have in their sights.

Jones said Australian Michael Cheika, who has enjoyed success in charge of Irish Heineken Cup champions Leinster, would be the ideal choice to be Melbourne's first coach.

O'Neill also signalled fresh raids on rugby league, with the focus on players from the under-20 Toyota Cup and schoolboy ranks.

"The reality is there is a big pool of talent in Australia called rugby league," O'Neill said.

"We are now carefully spotting league players in the younger, 16-years-plus age group who aren't superstars but have ability to adapt to our game."

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html

[travelling_gerry]

By Wayne Smith
November 13, 2009 .The new Melbourne Super 15 franchise is exploring the option of entrusting its head coach position to a successful rugby-savvy businessman as opposed to a professional coach.

Five years after it first sought to gain entry to Super rugby, Melbourne finally was confirmed yesterday as the new team to join the expanded competition in 2011.

Sources say the new team, expected to be known as the Rebels, might jump outside the box to appoint a head coach.

"We don't want a journeyman coach who just sees this as a three-year appointment before moving on to something else," one source said.

"We want someone who can establish the right culture right from the start."

Melbourne's admission was an outcome ARU chief executive John O'Neill described as a big relief and which likely Melbourne chairman Harold Mitchell hailed as 'an incredible victory for world rugby'.

Certainly it is an incredible victory for Australian rugby, giving the game a Super footprint in the national capital and in the four biggest cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

Even though Melbourne's case appeared irrefutable, a lengthy arbitration process conducted by former All Blacks captain David Kirk and retired New Zealand judge Barry Paterson was needed to confirm it ahead of South Africa's candidate, the Port Elizabeth-based Southern Kings.

The SA Rugby Union has been hit with a "please explain" by the South African government, which had strongly backed the Kings to speed transformation and it may be South Africa now adopts a promotion-relegation system to allow the Eastern Cape to challenge the lowest-ranked of the republic's five Super 14 teams.

O'Neill expressed sympathy for the plight of his South African counterparts, no doubt realising that had the arbitration process gone the other way the ARU would have been under similar pressure, but he nonetheless insisted the outcome was the right one for SANZAR and Super rugby.

Under the expanded format, Super 15 will run from mid-February to late August, with a brief recess for the June inbound Tests.

The number of ordinary matches will jump from 26 to 40 -- including 20 all-Australian derbies in place of the existing six -- while the finals series will be expanded to six matches.

There is no favourite for the coaching position, although Heineken Cup-winning coach Michael Cheika, who will wind up at Leinster at the end of its season -- though not necessarily to take the Melbourne job -- will be formally approached.

Another Australian coach of a Heineken Cup side, Tony McGahan, is also being considered but the Rebels are conscious they will need a media-friendly front man in the competitive Melbourne sporting market and it is doubtful whether the Munster coach fits that bill. However, that does not apply to his assistant, former Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher who is a contender.

Nick Mallett, who coached the Springboks to a world record 17-successive Test victories a decade ago but more recently has won only two of 18 Tests as boss of Italy, is also reportedly in the frame.


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html

[travelling_gerry]

Peter FitzSimons | November 13, 2009

It remains the most astute line on Australian sport in the past 20 years.

Surveying the debacle of Super League, even while AFL was continuing its scorched-earth march around Australia, John Singleton said in 1998, "While rugby league was going after Berlin and Beijing, the AFL was going after Sydney and Brisbane …"

Very true, John, and although you didn't lower yourself to mention the Rah-rahs, at least now rugby union can claim Melbourne!

For the news that broke yesterday, that Melbourne really will have a franchise in the expanded Super 15 competition in 2011- after they beat off first other contenders from Australia, including western Sydney, and also the South African contender, the Southern Kings - couldn't be better.

For starters, we all know Melbourne to be the sports capital of Australia, and it is bleeding obvious that rugby union needs to have an elite presence there if it is to boast a genuinely national footprint and … And what? But how can I be saying that rugby union needs to have a franchise there while sneering unpleasantly, just a few weeks ago, that despite their on-field success, the Melbourne Storm have been a financial disaster and should move to the Central Coast?

I thought you'd never ask!

Put simply, Melbourne might as well have been Berlin or Beijing for rugby league - territory so far beyond their natural ken, that it was unlikely they were ever going to be able to successfully transplant their game there.

But Melbourne is not like that with rugby union.

It doesn't need a "transplant" because union has been thriving there for 100 years and more. All it needs is fertiliser and care and it can naturally flourish.

Lest we forget, one of Australia's greatest war heroes, Weary Dunlop, learnt his rugby in the Melbourne competition in the 1930s and so loved the game that when he died in 1993 he was buried in his Wallabies jersey.

Another WWII hero, Stan Bisset, of Kokoda fame, also played for the Wallabies as a Victorian representative in the 1930s. Countless generations of rugby union people have been produced since in the Victorian capital - including Wallabies World Cup-winning prop Ewen McKenzie - and in recent times the union ranks have been swelled to bursting with South African, British and Kiwi expatriates.

All of this gives the new Super franchise a superb base upon which they can build, a base that the Melbourne Storm never had - and never will have.

This is news that will strengthen rugby union in Australia and hasten rugby league's final retreat from Beijing, Berlin and Melbourne, and send them back to where they belong and will be appreciated - beautiful Gosford, on the Central Coast.

pfitzsimons@smh.com.au

[mudskipper]

We might get a few Aussies back from OS... Its good news and more games in Australia which will help build the fan base...

[Thequeerone]

More like discontented Saffers seeking a better life - mind you there are a few interesting possibilities :

Lote possibility - can't be banned forever
Henjak must have served his time
SBW must also have had enough time
Link
trying to remember who else has disappeared recently all of the above would arouse interest from the natives but be very difficult to manage.

[jargan83]

Lote possibility - can't be banned forever

Lote is not banned/suspended but sacked.

I read something last week that said he was keen to play for Fiji at the next RWC and apparently there is a loop hole that would allow this to happen so long as he plays for a Tier 2 country

[beige]

News to me...

[jargan83]

News to me...

It was News to me as well

hence the use of "apparently"