A Year in the Life and Death of the Melbourne Rebels

“Brilliant, fly-on-the-wall insight”

Iain Payten – Sydney Morning Herald

“An invaluable tale to add to the canon of sports-writing. Unerring”

Harry Jones – 8⁄9 Combo Rugby Podcast

Raised in a rugby family in New Zealand’s King Country, Geoff Parkes has become a prominent and respected writer on rugby. Now based in Melbourne, Australia, his weekly column ‘The Wrap’ has become a regular Monday morning staple for rugby followers all around the globe. Published in 2017 his book, A World in Conflict: The Global Battle for Rugby Supremacy, provided insights into the commercial and political factors at play in determining rugby’s future, arising from the sport becoming professional in 1995. His writing seamlessly blends a deep understanding of how rugby is played on the field with an ability to explain how boardroom battles and off-field machinations impact upon and influence, on-field outcomes. In November 2023, Geoff embedded himself into the Melbourne Rebels franchise and the book that followed, A Year in the Life and Death of the Melbourne Rebels, is a first-hand account of everything that occurred over the course of the 2024 season; the high of the Rebels’ first-ever Super Rugby finals appearance to the lowest low imaginable; termination of the club. Geoff is also a novelist; his crime fiction book When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, will be published by Penguin Random House in February 2025.