I'm sorry Redshappy. I agree with most of your posts but the statement that the Rebels have been performing to substandard outcomes for some time is twaddle.
Let's look at 2016 - how many games did the Rebels win last year? 7 - more than the Reds and Force put together (3 wins for the Reds, 2 for the force).
How about 2015 then . the Rebels won 7 games equal to the total of the Reds and the Force together (4 for the Reds, 3 for the Force).
Yes, the Rebels have been crap this year (injuries haven't helped), but over the past 3 seasons they have won 15 games compared to 10 for the Reds and 8 for the Force.
And I note that we know that the Reds had $1.05 million of top ups in 2016 and the Rebels only $120k. So if the Rebels have been very sub-standard then what does that make the Force and Reds?
JP, you have a valid point and, in its terms, I fully accept what you say above and the spirit in which it's said. 'Very sub-standard' was too harsh in context. You certainly deserve a reply from me.
I was amiss in not being clear re my definition of 'sub-standard'.
I was in writing this thinking more of arguable absolute standards that should be applied to all Aus Super teams than merely 'relative to very poorly performing (in w-l terms) other Aus Super franchises such as the Reds and Force.'
Re the Reds under Graham, well, I openly detested that ludicrous HC choice from Day One in 2012, and I have long argued here that it was highly likely the Force was rapidly evolving into an enterprise too fragile for the ARU, or anyone else, to fund on an ongoing basis.
I have said for years here that IMO one of the numerous problems within the system-wide institution of Australian rugby is that the body that funds all the Super teams, the ARU, was/is derelict in its strategic policy and duty to stakeholders in not enforcing performance KPIs upon all its Super teams and giving itself the right to curtail or modify funding and make RU board and HC changes if such KPIs - both commercial and playing-wise - were over certain periods consistently not met. (NB: this argument necessarily assumes the ARU was a body competent in all respects to drive such a performance-led policy of investment alteration and major franchise changes when franchise performance was not adequate, and that is not the case today.)
I have also consistently argued on these pages that the pain endured over some years by the Rebels and their fans was and is principally the glaring failure of the funding parties to implant and insist upon a high-enough and stable-enough calibre of coaching group and business leadership into the Rebels so's to reflect the serious challenges of pro rugby entering a marketplace as tightly established and competitive as is Melbourne's, and I stand by that assessment.
For a pro code that was to make very significant $ investments in an expansion team like the Rebels, a far superior Business Plan (and related risk assessment and mitigation plan) for the team and business there should have been created back in 2010-11. Instead, the Rebels enterprise was made to lurch from one hapless CEO to another and with almost parallel corrosive instability in coaching and team recruitment policies. I am on record as saying for some time that I consider Totality Tony over-promoted as HC and over-indulged by the ARU and Rebels and that he'd likely fail over time.
Returning to our discussion: IMO, the w-l %s you quote for the Rebels in recent years (after some 5 or so years of establishment) are, in terms of a reasonable set of absolute, not relative, standards, ones that should not have been consistently and blithely accepted by the ARU (assuming it was competently run) and changes should have been considered with a view to driving this % up well into the 50%s and hopefully much higher. Further, these Rebels w-l %s have been accompanied by triple digit negative PDs and I doubt whether any local RU will be commercially viable over time if it loses more home games than it wins, that has been shown to be case with the serious financial struggles of Reds and Tahs when they have built up a consistent pattern of limp, non-dominant performance trends. Finally, it is the case I believe that Rebels' crowd levels, hovering around the 10,000 mark, look commercially dangerous to income and sponsor-gaining/retaining and a quarter-full AAMI is not a great look to Foxtel viewers either.
Whatever, the Rebels have certainly performed better than the Reds and Force in recent years, have had some fine 'giant-killer' victories vs the best Super teams (I have much enjoyed those!) and, as you say, that is absolutely something that should be noted and respected. Especially, in the Reds case, the time the Reds have been in existence and their far superior player development base.