Melbourne Rebels at risk of repeating mistakes of past

Can someone please explain to me why the Melbourne Rebels went after Melbourne Storm winger Marika Koroibete?

The Melbourne Rebels should be consolidating their financial position instead of paying big dollars for players such as Marika Koroibete. Picture: Adam Head.

Can someone please explain to me why the Melbourne Rebels went out of their way to chase Melbourne Storm winger Marika ­Koroibete?

I know the Rebels have new private owners, but hasn’t the ARU given them $6 million over five years to help support them? This is on top of an estimated $15m-$20m the ARU and the franchise’s original owner Harold Mitchell spent trying to prop them up.

I am hearing Koroibete will receive $600,000 a season from his Rebels deal, which will be topped up by the ARU, earning him twice as much as he would get in league.

How can the ARU justify this largesse when the Rebels should be concentrating on consolidating their financial position?

The Rebels’ attempt to buy instant success when they came into Super Rugby in 2011 was the main reason they went belly-up in the first place.

Remember they recruited 1999 World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen and big-name but over the hill players such as Stirling Mortlock and Adam Freier and then went out and splurged on stars such as Kurtley Beale, James O’Connor and Danny Cipriani. And where did it get them? ­Nowheresville!

The same thing happened at the Western Force when they entered Super Rugby in 2006. The Force bought a former All Black coach, John Mitchell, and poached Wallabies such as Nathan Sharpe, Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell from the east coast to try to make the playoffs in their first few years.

Where are the Force now? A branch office of the ARU.

The ARU’s establishment of expansion teams has been a complete failure in Melbourne and Perth because they have allowed the franchises to go about it completely the wrong way, seeking instant success on the field.

Melbourne and Perth are, and will always be, AFL towns and there is very little grassroots support for rugby in either city.

If the ARU wants rugby to grow in Melbourne and Perth, it needs to invest in the grassroots to build a solid platform on which a professional team can build on into the future.

When the AFL introduced Greater Western Sydney, it spent at least two years laying the groundwork for the expansion team. It was a long-term project designed to achieve lasting results, not instant gratification.

The Force and the Rebels were thrown into Super Rugby in alien environments with little preparation or support, yet they have had their moments. Under Mitchell, the Force almost made the playoffs one year before a player revolt forced him out.

And until the Brumbies beat the Rebels in Melbourne last week it looked like the Melbourne side had a real chance of finishing on top of the Australian conference, but thankfully Australian rugby has dodged a bullet.

There would be no value in the Force or the Rebels reaching the playoffs, let alone winning the title, because they would not be able to commercially capitalise on their success, although you would hope it would spark an increase in participation.

Sure, the Rebels and the Force attract a small band of diehard rugby fans to their home games, but that’s about the total of their support. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that Super Rugby’s ratings on Fox Sports in Melbourne, Perth and even Canberra are virtually non-existent. The only places where Super Rugby rate are Sydney and Brisbane and I’m hearing even they are not doing that well either.

I accept the argument that a competitive team is important to attract fans. We need the Rebels and the Force to be competitive, but at this stage of their development on and off the field, it would be counter-productive for them to be too successful. Look at the Melbourne Storm who won the NRL title in their second year in 1999, but still struggle financially because they did not build a base first.

I thought rugby was run by astute business people from the big end of town, but this is just dumb.

You cannot commercially capitalise on on-field success without first creating a supporter base, which has to be the priority of an expansion franchise. It does not matter how well a team performs, if people are not interested in the sport, they will not follow it. To think otherwise, it just foolish.

Sure, money has to be spent, but not on NRL players. Instead, developing young players such as Sean McMahon, Nic Stirzaker and Jack Debreczeni is what the Rebels should be all about. Even more important is investing to grow the game in schools and clubs because that it where a team’s support will ultimately come from. If you rely on a theatre-going style audience that is attracted to a team that has had a winning season or two, you are doomed to failure in the long run.

I would be delighted to see the Rebels or the Force win the Super Rugby title one day, but they need to grow their base, build their team and then capitalise on their success. Of course, this takes time and patience, which is something Australian rugby seems to lack.

The ARU cannot afford to build castles in the air. The culture of short-term thinking has to end.

I just hope it is not too late for the Rebels and the Force. The ­danger is that expectations having been raised so high, first in Perth, and now in Melbourne, it is unlikely they will ever be able to meet them without running the risk of going broke.

And I guess Koroibete will be fast-tracked into the Wallabies, another quick fix.