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I assume you're counting out of town memberships and members without season tickets in that number.Originally Posted by jargan83
C'mon the
Rebels coach ‘sick’ with worry for colleagues after job losses rock club
Melbourne Rebels coach Kevin Foote has spoken about on the sad realisation his club may not survive beyond this season, after all non-playing staff at the club lost their jobs and coaching staff were only re-contracted for the next four months.
The Rebels men’s and women’s teams begin their Super Rugby seasons next week and next month respectively, but the chances of the franchise being around in 2025 appear slim after administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers made all non-playing roles at the club redundant on Wednesday, including chief executive Baden Stephenson.
The Rebels were placed into voluntary administration earlier this month after it emerged the club had debts of more than $21 million.
Rugby Australia, who are a party to all players’ contracts, took back the licence and made assurances it would fund the team to play in the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific competition. To allow that to happen, the governing body confirmed on Thursday it had re-contracted 17 high-performance staff and eight front-office staff through to the end of the Super Rugby Pacific competition in June.
RA also confirmed eight administration staff had not been re-contracted, and Stephenson’s role had been made redundant.
“RA would like to thank Baden for his years of work at the Club and recognises this has been a difficult period for him and his team,” RA said in a statement.
Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh addressed the remaining Rebels staff on Thursday, but players did not attend, given they were not training ahead of a trial match against Fijian Drua on Friday.
Waugh maintains no decision has been made about the long-term future of the Rebels ahead of an administrator’s report due next month, but the job losses – and short-term contracting arrangements – paint a bleak picture for the Rebels.
“They haven’t told us what is happening post (Super Rugby season), and the optimist in me is hanging on,” Foote told this masthead. “There is an existing TV deal and all those sort of things. But yesterday was probably a bit more real. When you get that four-month contract, now this is pretty real.
“I guess it is exactly what we knew would happen, the only thing we did know is we are playing in ’24. And that’s just the big focus.
“The players have been good. Obviously yesterday was hard, especially with Baden and all the staff leaving. Baden was 10 years almost to the day, and it’s not easy seeing your chief leaving the building. That was very, very difficult.
“I was very proud of them, and Baden should be too. After he spoke, all the players lined up in a line and gave him a massive hug. That was very special, it is a good memory.”
Several players were coming off-contract with the Rebels at the end of the year, and are looking to secure their future in coming weeks and months. But the lack of certainty about the club’s future will make it extremely hard for the Rebels to be in the conversation, Foote says.
“I said to someone at Rugby Australia yesterday: if we do survive, what are going to be left with?” he said.
“I alluded to [The] Shawshank Redemption to Baden the other day; we have almost made it through\ the two years of shit, and now we are coming out the other side, but who are we going to be left with?”
Foote said he felt extremely concerned about the uncertainty faced by his fellow coaches, whom he brought to Melbourne to coach with him.
“Brad Harris had a three-year offer from the Drua he gave up to come to us. Tim Sampson is an unbelievable human being and a great coach. Geoff Parling and I have worked together for a long time and Rob Taylor has come back from Japan to join us,” he said.
“I could go on and on, but the reality is I am very concerned about all of them. I have been, you know when you get sick at night thinking about it.”
Flanker Josh Kemeny, who made his Test debut last year, announced to the team this week he would be departing to take up a contract with leading English side Northampton.
Leaning on his experience with the Western Force in 2017, Foote said he had stressed to a “petrified” Kemeny that there was no judgment and only support about deciding to move on, and it would be the same for all players and staff.
But he also pointed out Kemeny’s departure would also be the negative consequence of shutting the Rebels.
“My worry is, a guy like Kemeny, if you look at data on successful teams at the World Cup, by 2027 he would have been in 27-30 category and could have had 30 international caps by that time,” he said.
“He would know Australian rugby in and out, but now he is going to Northampton which I find devastating. It makes no sense for him to go to Northampton the year after he debuts for the Wallabies, that’s bizarre to me. Especially with the British and Irish Lions and World Cup coming up. I think the uncertainty (about Melbourne’s future) played a massive role in that (decision).”
The sad part of the Rebels potentially playing in their last season, said Foote, was the team is on the cusp of making a breakthrough this season, with Taniela Tupou and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto added to a team who can finally crack the finals.
Foote said the team were pleased to be able to focus on getting back on the field quickly, with Friday’s trial against Fiji.
“Our focus is now we get to play tomorrow, which is actually awesome. We just want to play and that’s all we have to do now is just focus on playing,” he said.
“They trained well after that and shifted focus pretty quickly, and understand there is a season still to play for.”
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...584ccc0a&ei=12
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“I said to someone at Rugby Australia yesterday: if we do survive, what are going to be left with?” he said.
“I alluded to [The] Shawshank Redemption to Baden the other day; we have almost made it through the two years of shit, and now we are coming out the other side, but who are we going to be left with?”
Foote said he felt extremely concerned about the uncertainty faced by his fellow coaches, whom he brought to Melbourne to coach with him.
...
The sad part of the Rebels potentially playing in their last season, said Foote, was the team is on the cusp of making a breakthrough this season, with Taniela Tupou and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto added to a team who can finally crack the finals.
Sounds awfully familiar to the things that we were saying about Force back in 2017 when RA chose Rebels and kicked us to the wilderness.
It's a real shame that innocent people (not just players & coaches, but admin staff, and all of the associated families) are having to go through this...and some potentially for a second time!
Taking no pleasure in this, but my crystal ball tells me a strong start with an upset or two before a couple of key injuries and super nova implosion around Round 10.
I guess from the outside Twiggy appeared at the 11th hour, so maybe there's still hope they have their own white knight, but it's looking pretty grim now with a long season ahead.
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
Nobody, well mostly nobody, wants to see this. Now it's up to their supporters and players to show some fight. Turning up would be a start. Nobody on this side of the Nullarbor knew what was ahead. The players fought tooth & nail and the SoB went with them. At the final bell Andrew Forrest stepped up. Maybe there's a white night in the "sporting capital of the world" if they show why they deserve saving. South Sydney did it Western Force did it. So it's over to you Melbourne.
Well a Melbourne based property developer valued at $1 billion just bought the Perth Glory so I guess they're better value then the Melbourne Rebels.
Might be hard when they can't sell tickets to individual games or memberships.
You'd have to think it's in the job description for PWC to sort that PDQ.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Fugg. Didn't see that post before I unintentionally plagiarised it.
That's alright mate, it appears your white knight only works at night though
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
Yeah thought similar when I saw that.
Being the sporting capital and all, surely there's another one lurking somewhere?
"Bloody oath we did!"
Nathan Sharpe, Legend.
One painful thing for me. Foote went through this at the Force in 2017. I'm not sure how many others, but you'd have to feel for them wouldn't you?
In both cases, a fair proportion of the blame has to go to RA
The force, because they didn't deserve to be axed.
The rebels because they were taught that they could spend as much over their earnings as they wanted and RA would always foot the bill.
Hopefully this new, more sustainable, stance signifies a change in attitude at the top where everyone is expected to provide value.
C'mon the
Melbourne Rebels to remain in Super W for 2024 season
Darren Walton
AAP
February 16, 2024 11:23AM
The cash-strapped Melbourne Rebels will press ahead with a Super W team in 2024 despite the club's future looking increasingly grim.
Phil Waugh said the women's contracts would be honoured in the same manner as the Rebels' male players, but the Rugby Australia (RA) chief was unable to place a time line on any decision around the club's existence beyond 2024.
Administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers on Thursday cut 10 staff including long-serving chief executive Baden Stephenson, while RA re-contracted men's coach Kevin Foote and the high-performance team on four-month deals.
"There's a lot of work that needs to go into what '25 and beyond looks like," Waugh said on Friday.
"Right now, it's just around ensuring that we've got the appropriate arrangements to be playing at AAMI Park, to get tickets on sale, and a lot of the operational aspects of delivering a successful '24 Super Rugby season for the Rebels.
"Then we need to accelerate the conversation on '25 and beyond, because players need certainty, staff need certainty, high-performance staff need certainty.
"The sooner we can get to an outcome with all the different stakeholders on what the path forward looks like for '25, the better it's going to be for our people.
"And, as we know, we need to look after our people."
Insisting the Rebels would "absolutely' see out the Super W season, Waugh said the focus on "participation and pathways will be exactly the same" even if there are no Super teams in Victoria in 2025.
"(For) young and female athletes coming through the system, the focus and pathway will be exactly the same," he said.
"It's a broader conversation on the future of the Rebels (for) '25 and beyond whereby the female team and participants are very much part of that conversation."
Waugh's only promise to the Rebels was transparency, after the Western Force endured a brutal axing from Super Rugby in 2017 before being reinstated in 2020.
"That's why I don't over-commit and over-promise to you, and give you a time line, because there's just so many different machinations to the conversation," Waugh told reporters on a video call.
"There's a lot of lessons to be learnt (from the Force affair) but probably the number one lesson is to be really transparent and honest and make sure that we're dealing with the situation sensitively, because it is a very sensitive situation.
"We just need to work through sensibly how we get to a resolution, and the sooner we can get to a resolution for all parties, including our commercial partners as well as our broadcasting partners and our neighbours across the ditch.
"It's really important for us to be engaging with everyone and getting a sensible solution as quickly as we can."
https://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/ru...son-c-13614997
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Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
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Is he admitting they were not honest or transparent in their dealings in 2017?
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
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