I understand sport is a business but there's a line between "petty provincialism" and what we're doing now.
If you noticed I listed no established players, nobody was begging for Taps to come home but I was saying let's look at young blokes who could enter our program. I listed 3 number 8s as an example of blokes who would be genuine possibilities in a particular position.
Plus, it's a bit strange to bring up the lack of provincialism point then list a bunch of young guns who by the same logic will move on in a couple of short seasons to greener business opportunities.
They might move on to greener pastures or, if they buy into what the Rebels are doing, they'll stay. Look at a team like Geelong in the AFL where they've managed, for years, to hang onto a host of stars by convincing them to keep playing at below market value for the chance to play finals footy.
Getting Melbourne boys is a good look for the club scene - if they've come through the Melbourne club scene. Picking up people who once played in Melbourne from the Shute Shield or France doesn't really help the Melbourne scene as all it says is you have to move elsewhere to succeed. People like to see young players get developed by their club, but, in my experience, they generally don't care how they arrived. For example I really couldn't care less that Hugh Pyle came through the Canberra grade system, or whatever it was. I care about the player, not the club. Now he's at the Rebels, I consider him a Rebels player and I'd be disappointed if he left because he was developed as a Soup player here.
My personal thoughts are that if the Rebels want to start getting 25-30k crowds to home games week-in, week-out, they're going to have to start winning. Picking Melbourne-based players isn't going to help that at the moment. Picking up the most talented 18-19-20 year olds in the country and bringing them along from year one, allowing spectators to get involved in that journey, will. If a Melbourne boy is the most talented in his position, then by all means take him, but I don't think they should be given special preference.
