Australia’s new rugby franchise, the Melbourne Rebels want their player signing deadline to be brought forward to protect their interests ahead of their inaugural 2011 season, chief executive Brian Waldron said on Monday.
Waldron said they were taking a “conciliatory” approach to negotiations with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) over the player signing deadline despite reports they were considering taking legal action.
Waldron, who will meet with ARU boss John O’Neill on Wednesday, said the owners of the Rebels, who are the only privately-funded Super rugby Australian franchise, had a right to protect their interests.
Upon handing over the Super 15 licence to the Rebels last month, the ARU imposed a ban on them signing Australian-based players before June 1.
The ARU said it was trying to avoid a repeat of the pillaging of other Australian sides when the Western Force joined the competition in 2006 and lured a dozen players away from the Queensland Reds.
Reports said the deadline was making recruitment difficult for the Rebels, who have still to land their first player.
“Being new into the chair from my point of view I’ll be taking a very conciliatory approach to the ARU,” Waldron told reporters.
“There are certainly some issues that we have but at the end of the day we want to work with the ARU to make sure that we’re highly competitive.
“We don’t want to be doing anything but working through our concerns with the ARU.
“We don’t see any need in having a public stoush [fight] about it.”
Waldron said he hoped to convince the ARU that it would be in the code’s best interests if the Melbourne Rebels were as competitive as possible and have a new transfer deadline in place.
“To be successful, as the Melbourne Storm (NRL) and the Melbourne Victory (football A-League) have demonstrated, you need to be highly competitive so I’d anticipate the ARU will assist us, on a fair basis and give us every opportunity to be competitive like the other provinces.”
Reports said on Monday that key Wallabies stars targeted by the Rebels were being picked off by the other four Australian franchises while the deadline was in place.
The Rebels will be Australia’s fifth team, alongside the New South Wales Waratahs, Queensland Reds, Western Force and ACT Brumbies, in the southern hemisphere’s elite provincial competition from 2011. — AFP