The landscape of Melbourne rugby has opened its doors with the disappearance of rebels – Storm leaps at the opportunity

In a city accustomed to sporting crossings, the captain of Wallabies Harry Wilson and the winger Harry Potter forced a kick with an obstacle to Sherrin in front of the new cameras at the MCG on Wednesday. With players from the AFL Essendon club, the media event was designed to promote Saturday’s test against the British and Irish lions and generate ticket sales to the crowd of more than 90,000 rugby in Australia. Behind the two Harrys, the rugby posts had been installed, but the Australian rules also remained, without yet giving on the ground so that the North code borrows for the day on Saturday.

Despite the domination of Australian rules on the winter sports market, Melbourne produced a harvest of international rugby players, notably Rob Valetini, joint medalist by John Eales, Potter, other Wallabies such as Seru Uru and Hunter Paisami as well as the Scottish Captain and the Lions Center, Sione Tuipolu.

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The connection of sport with Melbourne can be traced through its multicultural roots, its private elite schools and its suburban communities, in particular those that have links with the Pacific. However, the disappearance of Melbourne rebels last year left sport without a professional entity in the largest city in Australia. There are growing concerns on the part of those of the code that promising players will be lost in the rugby league.

Another local product, the last captain of the Rebels, the Backrower Rob Leota, made the letter M with his hands after having marked for the First Nations & Pasifika XV against the Lions on Tuesday, “for where I come from,” he said. “Unfortunately, last year was difficult for me, to be in Melbourne for nine years. I consider him good memories and I cherish in the times. ” Leota had to move to the Waratahs this year to continue her rugby career. Now he went to France to play with Bayonne. “Don’t forget your roots, because wherever you go, whatever the sport you play, be proud to be yourself,” he said.

Rugby Australia is in a period of “dimensioning” of the organization, and he gave up waiting for the rebels to become viable last year. Rugby Victoria, the body in charge of local clubs and the base, is also faced with financial pressure. Although a new center of excellence is crucial for the organization’s new financial sustainability strategy, it remains unfinished and temporary changing rooms are deployed on the northeast site of Melbourne for games, training and events.

Meanwhile, the Melbourne Storm rugby league club continues its slow but regular growth. The middle crowds are now greater than 20,000 and the outfit is considered one of the best executions of the LNR competition, behind AFL only in terms of income. Storm football manager Frank Ponissi has been recognized by a large part of the club’s success in the past two decades. After seeing the offer of young storm talents – often recruited in South New Wales or Queensland – Downle by 2022 during a period, he admits that it was a “negligence”, he worked to obtain the support of the board of directors for a renewed accent on the best of Victoria.

Six new full -time employees are now managing male trails, and the club will line up a team in the second level NSW Cup competition for the first time next season. The storm also recruits staff to manage junior female programs, designed to support the club’s possible entry into the NRLW.

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“We do not see him as a rugby rugby rugby union V, but we just want to have a program that young players – even if they are rugby players – can say, well, there is a real opportunity for me to climb the scale,” said Ponissi.

The veteran administrator said that young victorians, in particular with the history of the Pacific Island, often played the two rugby codes, and it was natural that they would see the attractiveness of the now complete track of the club.

“If you are good enough, you are ambitious enough and you want it, you can climb this scale without leaving the house,” said Ponissi. “Where now, without fault with Victoria rugby, they do not have this opportunity.”

Leota does not prevent young players from the Union from recognizing opportunities in the LNR. “The storm has been going well for so long, and you cannot blame the children to want to undertake the League, which is the unfortunate with the rebels who are no longer here,” he said.

So far, the storm has not produced many local players during their almost three decades of existence. The winger Siulagi Tuiimalatu-Brown became the sixth Victorian to wear the jersey earlier this month.

But Ponissi is ready to take advantage of those who in other sports for the improvement of his club. He even invited the former Lions player, Ronan O’Gara, to assault training on Wednesday, after the couple struck a link when the Irish man led to the Crusaders in 2018 and 2019. “On a larger scale, it is not an AFL V Le NRL here in Melbourne, because we are not going to win this fight,” said Ponissi. “If children playing rugby are attracted to come, it’s fantastic.”