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Thread: Super Rugby saga: Rebels players prepare to jump off sinking ship

  1. #16
    Veteran BLR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The InnFORCEr View Post
    No they did it last year as well

    Force are doing the same on 14 July, check your inbox for the invite if you were a Foundation Member.
    God, a parade for foundation members? While the peons clap and throw gifts at us?

    Horrible. Let us on the field to run around and be morons at will, much better than a lap of honour.

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  2. #17
    Immortal GIGS20's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shasta View Post
    Well that article from Justin Chadwick has been up for 24 hours and no other journo has followed up. Just another made-up column filler, more than likely.
    isn't it refreshing to have the unfounded malicious speculation directed at somebody other than us?

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    C'mon the

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by shasta View Post
    Well that article from Justin Chadwick has been up for 24 hours and no other journo has followed up. Just another made-up column filler, more than likely.
    Isn't it just a round-up of what has already been written elsewhere anyway Nothing we don't already knowr

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  4. #19
    Veteran valzc's Avatar
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    Gawd almighty!? The Old Boys Club strikes again.

    RUGBY UNION
    Super Rugby: McGahan heading home in super coup for the Reds

    Melbourne Rebels head coach Tony McGahan.
    The Australian12:00AM June 30, 2017
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    WAYNE SMITH
    Senior sport writerBrisbane
    @WayneKeithSmith

    Queensland are understood to have pulled off a major coup by recruiting Melbourne Rebels head coach Tony McGahan as a coaching support for Reds boss Nick Stiles in Super Rugby.

    Following a report in The Australian that McGahan intended to quit the Melbourne club at the end of the season, the Rebels issued a statement on June 15 confirming that the club and McGahan had indeed agreed to part ways. He will be leaving the Rebels as the longest-serving and most successful coach in the club’s history.

    He coached them to four wins in his first season, 2014, before winning seven games in each of the 2015 and 2016 seasons, and early indications were that the Rebels would be genuine contenders to win the Australian conference this year. Indeed, had they won their tally of games for each of the last two seasons, they would have romped home. From the outset, however, Melbourne was decimated by injury and they currently sit second last on the table, with a win and a draw from 13 matches.

    It was thought initially McGahan might venture back to Europe, possibly to the Munster club where he coached from 2005 to 2012, taking them to the final of the Celtic League against Leinster in the 2010-11 season, but indications are that he has decided to return to his native Queensland.

    The QRU issued a statement insisting that, as it does every year, a review of the Reds program would be conducted at the end of the season.

    “As such, it would be premature and inappropriate to comment on speculation or any potential changes or additions to the coaching staff until the season is over and the review has been completed,” the statement read.

    It is expected that McGahan will be given a title commensurate with his enormous experience — he returned to Australia from Munster to be Robbie Deans’ defence coach in 2012 with the Wallabies — but in effect he will become Stiles’s right-hand man and mentor. Precisely where that would leave Stiles’s present assistant coaches, defence coach Jason Gilmore and attack coach Shane Arnold, is yet to be established.

    Certainly Stiles and McGahan are old friends and would be able to operate together without any friction. Indeed, they would often telephone each other on a Sunday morning throughout the season to compare notes with how their Super Rugby teams had performed the previous night. More often than not, they ended up consoling each other.

    There is no question that the malignant uncertainty surrounding the future of the Rebels as the Australian Rugby Union attempted all season to cull one of his five Super Rugby clubs — Melbourne and the Western Force quickly became the only contenders for the axe — eventually took its toll on McGahan.

    But it is clear that the strain has been felt across a much wider front. One of the club’s best administrators, Steve Mitchell, the general manager (commercial), is understood to have submitted his resignation, so too the highly-regarded head of performance Damian Mednis, while two of the club’s senior Wallabies, Sean McMahon and Toby Smith, both are believed to be heading overseas, McMahon to Japan, Smith to the Hurricanes. More worrying still, the American Express cards of senior staff were recalled by the club earlier this week, ramping up stress levels.

    It was understood that the first mediation session between the Rebels and the ARU was to have been held today but has been cancelled. Rebels owner Andrew Cox has launched legal action against the ARU claiming millions of dollars in damages stemming from the campaign to reduce Australia’s Super Rugby presence.

    The mediation conference was to have been the opening step in that process. Instead, it is believed the two parties will continue with their ongoing talks — presumably to determine whether the national body is able to buy the Rebels from Cox and close the team down, an outcome Cox has several times stated will not happen.

    Cox is believed to be in the United States on business.

    The cruellest aspect of this seesawing battle for survival is that the increasing sense of gloom being felt in Melbourne is being balanced by a heightened sense of relief in Perth.

    And by a delicious sense of irony, the two clubs will meet in Perth next Friday when Super Rugby resumes, in a match that will have little impact on the Super Rugby competition but will be of enormous significance for both of them.

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    Avatar for David
    David 45 MINUTES AGO
    Very few Rebels players have improved under McGahan.

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    Avatar for robert
    robert 2 HOURS AGO
    Adding McGahan will help the Reds but they need to look way beyond the coaching job. If they think changing the coach will be their saving they need to think again. The worst game of Rugby I can remember seeing was the Qld vs NSW clash at Suncorp about 2 months ago. The disinterest and lack of commitment by the two teams was surprising. The least worst team won and I could almost have given up watching the game. How the spirited clashes of the previous 30/ 40+ years were a distant memory. The whole code needs to have an honest look at the culture and look at generational change from the junior years up.

    Perhaps Australian Rugby's greatest mistake was to think they could win taking on the NRL and AFL. 5 Australian teams, they had to be dreaming.

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    Last edited by valzc; 30-06-17 at 07:35.

  5. #20
    Legend Contributor Alison's Avatar
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    What were senior staff doing with Amex cards? Why can't they make do with VISA and MasterCard which have much lower costs atttached to them! No wonder Aust rugby is broke if that's an example of its profligacy.

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  6. #21
    Legend Contributor Alison's Avatar
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    Interesting that mediation has been cancelled. Cox is obviously going for the jugular. And who could blame him. He was sold a pig in a poke.

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    Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby

  7. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alison View Post
    Interesting that mediation has been cancelled. Cox is obviously going for the jugular. And who could blame him. He was sold a pig in a poke.
    He knew what he was getting. They asked for mediation didn't they? To assess damages, if this is no longer necessary, they may no longer be seeking damages .

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  8. #23
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    But it is clear that the strain has been felt across a much wider front. One of the club’s best administrators, Steve Mitchell, the general manager (commercial), is understood to have submitted his resignation, so too the highly-regarded head of performance Damian Mednis, while two of the club’s senior Wallabies, Sean McMahon and Toby Smith, both are believed to be heading overseas, McMahon to Japan, Smith to the Hurricanes. More worrying still, the American Express cards of senior staff were recalled by the club earlier this week, ramping up stress levels.

    Reads to me that things may not be as Cox tells it Perhaps the wheels are falling off

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  9. #24
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    Don't want to be a downer but.....are the Rebels leaving their playing list open to sign up Force players? Who would you rather? Jack Deb*** or DHP? Meakes or Inman? McGahan or Wessels?

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  10. #25
    Player yungfen's Avatar
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    That is one way of looking at it, but the players cant be forced to sign with the Rebels. They will still have a choice.

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  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by yungfen View Post
    That is one way of looking at it, but the players cant be forced to sign with the Rebels. They will still have a choice.
    And I'm sure DHP has already said that he wont sign with any other Aus club and will move overseas and be ineligible to play for the Walabies

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  12. #27
    Champion Contributor sandgroperrugby's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kipper_mckinnon View Post
    And I'm sure DHP has already said that he wont sign with any other Aus club and will move overseas and be ineligible to play for the Walabies
    He did say something along those lines. Then he said he is committed to playing for the Wallabies where ever and however that can be accomplished. This was said whilst still being a force man through and through.

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    Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!

  13. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by kipper_mckinnon View Post
    And I'm sure DHP has already said that he wont sign with any other Aus club and will move overseas and be ineligible to play for the Walabies
    I think a couple of weeks ago while in the Wallaby camp he changed his tune.

    Could just be to not ruffle feathers considering he was on the East coast.

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  14. #29
    Veteran zimeric's Avatar
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    hasnt Inman signed oversees with someone?

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  15. #30
    Senior Player Leo86's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zimeric View Post
    hasnt Inman signed oversees with someone?
    Oyonnax

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