Melbourne Rebels 2024
- Thread starter RugbyReg
- Start date
eastman
Arch Winning (36)
The Rebels back in the day were somewhat likable- when they had battlers like Cooper Vuna, Jarrod Saffy, Cipriani and Lachlan Mitchell running around for them.
It all went downhill the day they decided to make Reece Hodge the face of the franchise.
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
That’s a real hot take…
Adam84
Nick Farr-Jones (63)
I enjoy satire posts
eastman
Arch Winning (36)
Tongue in cheek but is it really that far off the mark? For a period of time there was some real optimism associated with the Rebels as a franchise; however that soon turned into apathy and mediocrity.
The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
When Sydney Uni were given a Super Rugby franchise.
Slim 293
Stirling Mortlock (74)
Dctarget
John Eales (66)
On a more positive note, from Reg's post about the Opta stats, Kellaway was easily first in metres made in round 1 out of the 12 teams. Leota's stats even more impressive, made the most dominant carries in the comp and 2nd most break assists.
Also Van Nek gave away 7 penalties.. Some good pressure there.
And Sam Spink missed 6 tackles, hopefully Proctor can exploit.
Also Van Nek gave away 7 penalties.. Some good pressure there.
And Sam Spink missed 6 tackles, hopefully Proctor can exploit.
Highlander35
Andrew Slack (58)
I thought Gardner was poor with respect to that, he brought both front rows in for a full chat and then Rhys gave away b2b scrum penalties. We got the yellow from Ikitau anyways so no impact on gameflow, but rusty stuff.
The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
Kellaway looked real good.
Van Nek was giving away offsides and ruck penalties as well though which must of pissed off the coaches big time. His build up on penalties got them the warning that got Ikitau carded.
Is it off the mark? That the turning point for the Rebels was when they signed Reece Hodge? Ah. Yeah. I reckon that’s one of the most insane things I’ve read on this board.
To this day, I still can't understand why Gibbo got the scrum penalty in the 40th. We'd won the scrum, and the wheel looked legal to me (forward momentum, then twist).
Rando gus penalty generator time...
Highlander35
Andrew Slack (58)
IMO, correct timing, ridiculous conflation.
2015 off of some smart recruitment and retention, the 2014 NRC minor premiership for the Rising, and a few Victoria forward celebrations like the signing of Sefa, plus Fereti and Sione making the Junior WOBs, we had our best finish both in terms of W/L (7&9) and PD (-35ish), and (IMO) were seen to be an easy team to get behind as producing fruit.
The wheels started to go off in 2016, where it was clear there were a lot of competing interests (Stirzaker as the captain?) and losses ofa couple of important bodies, but the new format and a couple of 1 year signings (Thompson) help paper over that with the W/L (7&8) but the PD told the story (-120ish)
We then couldn't paper over anything in 2017 as Harris, Thompson, Ellison, Fuglistaller and Jones all left and McGahan completely lost the changing room (in particular see Bip Meehan's antics both this season and previous), plus the threat of the axe and we crash to a 1-1-13 record but survive ahead of the Force: very much changing our narrative (in some ways, quite rightly) from a developing underdog trying to make a few "big" names, some youngsters, some diamonds in the rough and some undervalued squad players from other sides into a competitive team while our juniors developed, into a villain who survived through legal shenanigans, were exceptionally heavily propped up by RA and completely failed to at least 3 seasons of having a top 2 Australian squad into a single finals appearance.
snoopycatchicken
Bob McCowan (2)
Leota had a great game. Thought he outplayed Valentini in defence, ripping the ball off him and stopping him a few times.
KevinO
John Hipwell (52)
McGahan never should have been appointed Rebels coach, I was against it from the start and was furious after a good win at home when he made a ton of changes and we got spanked in the first 20 minutes by Force away in a game we really should have been aiming to win. RA assigned him to the Rebels because they needed to get him off the Wallaby books, as the new head coach did not want him as part of the coaching team.
Adam84
Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Rebels were still independent at the time McGahan was chosen by the Rebels board as the new coach.
swingpass
Peter Sullivan (51)
no he was foisted on them by RA
Wilson
David Codey (61)
I was no fan of McGahan as a coach and that was my understanding at the time of his initial appointment, but that was only for a two year contract. If the Rebels were that unhappy with the appointment why did they then turn around and offer him a contract extension?
Strewthcobber
Mark Ella (57)
I assume the board mistakenly thought he offered some kind of income tax deductions