Geoff Parkes

"In November 2023, the Melbourne Rebels began a pre-season full of hope and optimism. With a deep roster and a strong, unifying 'Ubuntu' culture embedding itself with the franchise, there was high anticipation that the 2024 season - their 14th - would finally deliver success.

Granted unprecdented insider access, writer Geoff Parkes set out to document the Rebels' season and to provide insight into what makes a professional rugby franchise work. What followed was an extraordinary turn of events: the club tipped into voluntary administration early in 2024, now not only fighting to compete in one of the global rugby's toughest elist competitions, but against a governing body intent on shutting it down.

A Year in the Life and Death of the Melbourne Rebels is a raw, close up account of a group of special people who, despite being forced to operate under severe financial and emotional stress, strove to take their club to it's first ever Super Rugby finals appearance. This book also provides a a window into the administration of rugby in Australia; a troubling account of how a determination to impose financial austerity clashed head on with rugby's traditional values of respect, comradeship, and a shared love of the game."

"Power and influence in rugby is shifting away from its historical ties to international on-field success, much of it in the southern hemisphere, to the boardrooms of cashed-up, influential rugby clubs in the UK and France.

A confused rugby calendar is subjected to a ‘land grab’ from clubs and national unions, all striving to maximise revenue. Player welfare concerns are cited by all and sundry, yet are cast aside as soon as there is a dollar to be made.

Told through the eyes of rugby identities from around the world, this is a fascinating story of a once staunchly amateur sport now fully engulfed in the clutches of professionalism—the future uncertain and the fabric of ‘the game they play in heaven’ straining under the excesses and ambitions of rugby’s new powerbrokers."