On the eve of the Melbourne Rebels first trial match of the season, the Club took a moment to celebrate its standout performers from this year’s pre-season campaign.
Melbourne Rebels Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach, Luke Vella, believed it was important to reward the progress made since the Club began training at the start of October.
“The purpose of having awards like this is to recognise reward with effort,” said Vella.
“The boys have put in a great shift over the course of the past 12 weeks, so we wanted to acknowledge some great results.
“Thanks to our friends at Pulse Roll and Australian Venue Co. for supporting today and helping us out with prizes.”
Lachie Anderson took out the Lighting Rebel Award for recording the highest max velocity, while the emerging Michael Icely was named fastest among forwards.
“Lachie is an incredibly talented athlete and he’s recorded our fastest speed at 10.1 metres per second and he’s done that at kick chase, so fair play to him.”
Harlequins’ youngster Isaac Adeo Kailea was awarded the Lean Rebel for his impressive body composition transformation, while Trevor Hosea was named the Bulking Rebel for the highest increase of overall strength.
“Trevor’s made massive inroads over the past three months, and he’s made a real conscious effort to create change within himself to take his game to the next level.”
“We challenged Isaac hard over the first four weeks of preseason and he’s completely changed his body composition now, which is fantastic.”
Queenslander Sam Wallis was rewarded for his fast start at The Stockade by winning the Iron Rebel award after completing the most amount of training throughout the course of the first three pre-season blocks.
“He’s done exactly what you want a young player to do – he’s got on with his training and hasn’t missed anything, so that’s a great effort by Sam.”
Rounding out the awards was Cameron Orr, who was presented with the Love Award for best embodying the Club’s love philosophy.
The Rebels have enjoyed a strong start to preparations for the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific season, after beginning training on October 1st at Melbourne’s world class MSAC facilities at Albert Park.
This Thursday, our boys return to the field to face the Waratahs in NSW in what is the Club’s first trail match.
While the match won’t be broadcast, Rebels Media will provide behind the scenes coverage from the day.
