Melbourne Rebels could play their last game at AAMI Park on Friday

With Rugby Australia ready to close the doors on the Melbourne Rebels, Friday’s likely final home clash could be history making in more ways than one.

A history-making first and sad last are both possible outcomes when the debt-riddled Melbourne Rebels front up at AAMI Park on Friday night for what could be the final home game in the Super Rugby franchise’s underwhelming 13 seasons of existence.

Should the Rebels end a three-game losing streak and beat the fourth-placed Chiefs, having played as the walking dead since news of their financial crisis and $22m of debt emerged in January, coach Kevin Foote’s men could qualify for a maiden finals appearance.

It’s a feat the club has failed to achieve since its inaugural campaign in 2011, having since then gone through significant coaching (five), playing (lots) and ownership changes, played in front of dwindling crowds and a move towards being a relatively anonymous minnow in Australia’s sporting capital.

Making the finals could, however, prove an absolute last hurrah for a club that even the governing body, Rugby Australia, wants to shutter as it tries to wind back expenses and better streamline player high performance programs to get the Wallabies back on track after a disastrous 2023 World Cup accentuated the issues of a sport far removed from its glory days.

Last home game tomorrow

No Rugby Australia news about the future

No one with any 🥥🥥 saying we will continue

Players talking about leaving a legacy and being the best team ever

📝 Guess we can read between the lines

— Super Rebels Rugby 🏉 (@superebelsrugby) May 16, 2024

After a lengthy investigation into the club’s circumstances creditors voted to back a rescue plan with a consortium of investors, including some of the previous Melbourne Rebels directors, who ironically oversaw the descent into the mire, and talks about a possible resurrection will continue.

But it’s not a plan RA wants to back and it has shown its hand with a lack of communication about the situation that even to this week, Rebels winger Lachie Anderson said had left players in limbo, making their preparation for the final stand difficult on one hand but motivating on the other.

“It probably is the elephant in the room – the uncertainty, we’re dealing with things that no other Super Rugby club is at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve dealt with it for 13 weeks now and it’s no different this week.

“You’re not short of motivation; we realise the opportunity to play at home is massive for us, and we understand what a win would do for us and the program.

“Everyone would like to know (about the future) but I think the staff and players are doing an incredible job of focusing on the rugby and it probably gives us good relief from the external stuff.”

One of the few fans who keeps turning up to support the Melbourne Rebels. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

While information on the future has been limited, that has also moved to create a sense of urgency among the playing group to ensure a club that started with so much hope and ambition, led at first by World Cup winning Wallabies coach Rod McQueen and captained by former Wallabies skipper Stirling Mortlock, wouldn’t go out with a whimper.

Anderson said the players spoke regularly about being the most successful Rebels team in the club’s history, a history that could end with them.

“It’s important – we as players want to write history here, we want to leave a legacy behind and leave the place in a better position than when we started,” the 26-year-old said.

“We have the opportunity to play finals footy, which no Rebels team have ever done, so that’s what our target is.

“We speak about it a lot, it’s definitely a goal of ours.”

Originally published as Melbourne Rebels could play their last game at AAMI Park on Friday