Melbourne eyes Super entrance
5 Jul 2009
Melbourne rugby officials believe they have all the ingredients to house a successful Super Rugby franchise.
With the Super Rugby expansion taking place from 2011, the extra team will join the Australian conference. South Africa’s Southern Kings believe they have a chance, but realistically the team will be from Melbourne, the Gold Coast, or west Sydney.
Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club representative Barry Bowler says the city has the players, support base as well the infrastructure to be a success. Bowler pointed to the local rugby league side as an example.
‘Rugby league has always been a much smaller competition [here],’ Bowler told rugbyheaven.com.au. ‘The number of clubs have never been as great, so if you look how successful the Storm’s been with such a small base then a Melbourne rugby side would easily be as successful in its first year.
‘They’ve done very well the Melbourne Storm and we’re happy to have them, but all our premier-division clubs have to have three senior teams and a colts team, and two rugby pitches, so our infrastructure and player base is much stronger. The VRU is celebrating its 100th year, which shows rugby has a strong foothold in Victoria and Melbourne,’ he added.
The two teams would share a ground, dubbed a ‘mini Suncorp Stadium’, and Bowler says it will provide exemplary facilities for fans and players.
‘They get 15,000 or so on a regular basis to Melbourne Storm games, which is very good considering rugby league’s standing on a club basis in Victoria,’ he said.
‘A lot of those people would be rugby fans who want to watch a rugby-type game, so there’ll be lots of support from them, too. And there’s quite a bit of corporate support here for rugby.’
12 Comments
5 Jul 2009, 09:18 am
This has to be the worst kept secret in history…
John O Neill farked the whole of SANZ(AR)… without even blinking… the man is a genius…
Cannot wait to see Rory Kockott turn out for the Rebels and Wallabies…
5 Jul 2009, 09:24 am
This franchise will suffer in the first few tournaments, they are going to have to dip HEAVILY into Sydney/QLD’s club ranks to fill the team out – and the club teams are sorely lacking in experience at the moment due to the Australian S14 sides dislike of recruiting straight from club into super 14, its a self inflicting cycle (and a pity, as surely Club rugby is the heart of the game)
5 Jul 2009, 09:26 am
Melbourne is THE Aussie Rules heartland. Even rugby league battles to make serious inroads and tiny rugby union is even smaller than soccer there.
5 Jul 2009, 10:00 am
Good for Melbourne! They deserve a team (after being f*cked over by Perth the last time). Watch rugby union grow there.
5 Jul 2009, 10:01 am
PS it is simply NOT viable for a number of reasons to have the Southern Kings based in Australia. It’s even silly just contemplating it.
5 Jul 2009, 10:56 am
Bad idea, the game is so small there, with football taking off. What about the smaller nations…this bad for rugby.
O’Neill is very devious man., ask the Kiwis. He wants the cake and eat it.
5 Jul 2009, 11:28 am
Yes the cons will get the 15th super team. It was agreed in Dublin. Cheeky’s team will first have to get into the CC before they can even think of super rugby.
5 Jul 2009, 14:42 pm
Should have been given to form a combined Tonga/Samoa/Fiji team, playing out of Singapore or something.
5 Jul 2009, 18:15 pm
#7 RedLion: Cheeky’s team can’t even beat a team who got thumped 22 zip by the Sharks U21…
Nice building blocks. Ask Tony M about this the other day and he ran for cover.
6 Jul 2009, 06:21 am
After living here in Melbourne for the last 10 years.
I can honestly say without exaggeration that I have never meet a Victorian born Australian who is even aware of what Rugby Union is, as they often confuse Union with Rugby League.
Poms, Saffa’s, NSW’ers, Qld’ers, Fijians, Samoans, Tongans and us Kiwis all know the difference of the course.
AFL is a religion down here.
Even when the competition is over, there is a preference in the local newspaper’s sports sections to do lifestyle stories on the AFL stars, with one paragraph reports on other less popular sports results(such as international Rugby).
And ironically it’s O’Neils last code, soccer that is making the biggest inroads down here, especially with our large southern European populations.
But in saying that I’ve heard that 50% of all Australian citizens were born or have parents who were born overseas, so there you go.
It’ll be a team full of us ‘new Australians’,
with ‘new Australian’ fans.
I think it may be finanically viable eventually, but it may take a while.
Maybe Lote Tuqiri’s wages will pay for the francise set up costs.
On the field results, will depend on who they import (domestically or internationally) to coach and play.
I would imagine it would be a desirable destination from a players point of view as they would get to ply their trade in a cosmopolitan city (compared to isolated Perth), whilst keeping some anonymity (at least that is what the Melbourne Storm league stars say).
6 Jul 2009, 08:34 am
No wonder it’s called The land Of Down Under. Soccer is more popular than rugby…that’s an abomination of all that is holy.
7 Jul 2009, 07:15 am
but we all knew this?
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