Liquidators work through Rebels report as state government avoids bail-out commitment

Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh met Victorian government officials on Wednesday to discuss the future of the Melbourne Rebels, as liquidators continued to look for a way forward for the club.

But there are still no guarantees over whether the government will provide a bailout for the club, which officially entered voluntary administration on Monday with a multimillion-dollar debt.

Melbourne Rebels player Brad Wilkin last season. Club chiefs insist the Rebels will take the field in 2024.Credit: Getty

The Sydney-based boss flew down to Melbourne on Wednesday and met Rebels players and staff before meeting with Sports Minister Steve Dimopolous and members of the government-operated Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust.

The club owes a reported $1 million in stadium fees to the trust.

Speaking outside the Rebels’ home base of AAMI Park, Waugh again avoided committing to the future of the Rebels beyond 2024, but said a decision about the club would be made as quickly as it could to avoid an extended period of uncertainty.

“We’ve always had a very strong relationship with all governments and certainly the Victorian government, and now we’re having very sensible constructive conversations around the viability of a provisional, professional team in Victoria and those conversations will be ongoing,” Waugh said.

“The Victorian government has always been very supportive of Australian Rugby,” he said “When you think about rugby presence here – not just at a professional level, but also down in the community, it’s also really important for us to have a strong presence.”

The state government has previously bailed out the Rebels. In 2017, the then-Andrews government entered into a $20 million deal with Rugby Australia to secure the Bledisloe Cup and British and Irish Lions Test matches in Melbourne over an eight-to-10-year period.

RA has also tipped in tens of millions of dollars in funding and loan write-offs to keep the Rebels afloat since the club’s inception in 2011, desperate to maintain a footprint in Victoria.

World Rugby boss Alan Gilpin previously told this masthead that Melbourne would still be in the running to host the Rugby World Cup final in 2027 even if it didn’t have a professional team in the city.

Dimopolous was contacted for comment, but did not respond in time for publication.

The meeting comes a day after Premier Jacinta Allan said it was “too soon” to know whether the state government would offer financial support to the club.

Waugh offered no guarantee about Australia continuing with five Super Rugby teams beyond this season, and brushed off a question about whether the loss of the Rebels would negatively impact negotiations for the next broadcast deal.

“It’s about a product that consumer wants to watch and consume. So it’s really important for us to lift the quality,” he said. “There’s a lot going on, but it’s about putting the right people in the right positions to lead the organisation into a better position to where we are now.”

Martin Ford and Stephen Longley, of auditing giant PwC, have been appointed as the Rebels’ liquidators.

RA will pay staff and players this season and the club’s licence has been transferred to the governing body. The timeline of the voluntary administration process is uncertain, with both the Rebels and RA remaining in limbo until PwC conducts its full process and report.

Rebels boss Baden Stephenson also rejected reports the club’s chair Paul Docherty had stood down from his role. Instead, he said, the board had been relieved of its duties as the club was now in the hands of RA and administrators.

The Rebels start their season on February 23 with a clash against the Brumbies at AAMI Park.

With Kieren Rooney and AAP