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Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom leading private group with plans to save Melbourne Rebels
Iain Payten, The Daily Telegraph
May 16, 2017 5:42pm
Subscriber only
FORMER Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom is leading a consortium trying to buy the Melbourne Rebels and save them from the axe.
Elsom confirmed to the Daily Telegraph he is part of a group of private investors talking to Melbourne’s current owner, Andrew Cox, about purchasing the Rebels’ Super Rugby licence.
Former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer is an adviser to Elsom’s consortium.
Elsom, who captained the Wallabies between 2009 and 2011, has been involved in club ownership before as part of an Australian consortium (along with Dwyer) that took over French club Narbonne in 2011.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...de3e58b56cd181
Interesting that the ARU would need to approve the sale by Cox. And the price tag is $6million.
Makes me think of the RSPCA TV ads we used to get in the UK years ago - "a dog is for life; not just for Christmas."
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
So, if they buy out Cox, what happens then? We have new owners who are willfully walking into a disaster zone and no team cut? Or do we have the old pollie line of 'we didn't know how bad it was until we got into office so we are getting rid'? Or will Elsom be used as a figurehead to convince Brumbies supporters to take their medicine and merge with these new rugby loving consortium? With the offloading of the NRC team the Brumbies franchise is all alone now.
It doesn't make sense. Cox isn't the one short of money, and he said he didn't want to sell. So what difference would new buyers make, unless Cox has actually named an exorbitant price that the ARU can't or won't pay I thought Rocky was never that friendly with the ARU either. It's all a bit left of field.
I think that anybody buying the rebels (or the force for that matter) in the current climate, would have no recourse if the license for that team was suddenly deactivated.
Possibly that's the rider in this case, the ARU have engaged a third party to make the purchase in order to avoid paying an exorbitant price due to the destruction they have wreaked on their own goodwill.
Actually, reading that back, I recant everything I just said.
Far too smart for puller and the clone.
C'mon the![]()
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This load of shit will quickly become v-fish and chip wrapping, more than likely.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Victorian government issues $14m threat to save Rebels
The Australian12:00AM May 17, 2017
WAYNE SMITH
Senior sport writerBrisbane
@WayneKeithSmith
The Victorian government is attempting a pincer movement to head off the closure of the Melbourne Rebels, warning the ARU not to use any of the $14 million it gives to rugby union to purchase the Rebels.
At the same time, the government says any further assistance to the Rebels is conditional on its owner Andrew Cox announcing his ongoing commitment to the Super Rugby club.
In one of the most tumultuous days in Australian rugby history, former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has emerged as the head of a “white knight” consortium poised to buy the Rebels and keep it as a going concern.
All of this was playing out against a backdrop of human drama, as Rebels assistant coach Morgan Turinui spoke for the first time about how the stresses of facing an uncertain future was having an effect on his players’ welfare.
“We’re so focused on mental health issues challenging young people today, young sportsmen today, and on the one hand you have the ARU putting them in a situation that is putting them under extreme stress,” said Turinui. “It’s not acceptable. It’s disgraceful. It’s as simple as that.” Turinui spoke touchingly of Cox’s pledge to the players and staff to never sell out the Rebels. As Cox phrased to The Weekend Australian on April 15: “We are not interested in selling the Rebels to the ARU if their sole reason for buying them was to shut them down and cease Super Rugby in this state. We have no intention of presiding over the death of rugby union in Victoria.”
But for all of Turinui’s references to Cox as “our knight in shining armour” who was “rock solid” in his determination to keep the Rebels, the persistent rumours are that the present asking price for the team is about $9m.
If that figure, or anything near it, is true, then it is surely a sign of staggering desperation by the ARU to cut their present five teams down to four, which was the commitment they gave to SANZAAR in London in March and repeated last Friday to SANZAAR executives in Tokyo. Australian rugby scarcely has money to throw around, particularly not to a man who purchased the Rebels for $1 and already has received the bulk of $6m of ARU front-end loaded funding spread over five years.
If the sale goes ahead at the rumoured price, it may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory for the ARU. In its anxiety to shed a team — the Western Force have also been announced as the other target but are proving to be remarkably resilient at defending themselves — to meet its assurances to SANZAAR, it could trigger moves to call an emergency general meeting of the ARU. If an EGM were to happen, it is unlikely that CEO Bill Pulver nor chairman Cameron Clyne would survive it.
In the meantime, the ARU will still have some curly questions to answer if the Victorian Rugby Union, headed by Tim North, QC, are able to confirm their meeting with the full board of the ARU later this week. Pulver was asked by The Australian for a comment yesterday about the situation and replied: “While dealing with the legal proceedings, I am simply not at liberty to discuss the issue. Moving to four teams is the right thing for Australian Rugby (but I’m) acknowledging that it is a difficult process. We are moving as quickly as quickly as we can towards a resolution.”
Even Elsom doubted that his consortium would have the chance to come to the rescue.
“The stumbling block is the ARU which is offering a huge amount of money,” Elsom said. “You can understand his (Cox’s) position. He is a bloke who is not a traditional rugby person and they’re offering him this sum.
“I can understand Cox’s position. I certainly don’t agree with it. But what I can’t understand is why the ARU is doing this. You couldn’t get any more erroneous decision than to give someone an offer like that which does not help Australian rugby one bit.”
Certainly the Victorian government is taking the rumoured negotiations seriously, with the Minister for Sport John Eren writing to Cox and his Imperium Group partner Peter Sidwell and stating that the government regards them as custodians of the game and requiring them to act in the best interests of the state of Victoria by retaining the team as a Super Rugby licence.
“We require you to inform us you will not accept any financial offer by the ARU to purchase your licence while we evaluate the need for government support,” Eren wrote. “In order for this to occur a public announcement of your ongoing commitment to keeping the Rebels in Victoria must be made as soon as possible.”
At the same, the general manager of Major Events for Visit Victoria, Damien de Bohun wrote to Pulver warning him that any attempt to utilise the proceeds of the partnership agreement ($14m, including the $5m for a future Bledisloe Cup) to fund the purchase of the Melbourne Rebels franchise licence would be seen by Visit Victoria, the Victorian government and the Victoria public as an abandonment of the good faith agreement.”
This is not the first time the Victorian government has issues with the ARU. Commitments were made to the union to build a rectangular stadium on the promise that the 2006 expansion team would be located in Melbourne. Instead it went to Perth, with Melbourne forced to wait until 2011.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...d108cda0163ad1
Seems the easiest option is to cut the brumbies/tahs/reds now!
If there is an EGM of the ARU, we should get a 'busload' of us together and go over for it!!
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
Where and when is this going end!!
Anyone who thinks this may be a good idea should talk to the rugby community at Nabonne.