(RON STEINER was CEO at Victorian Rugby Union from 1997-2008. He led the charge for the VRU's Super 14 bid in 2005, won in the end by Western Australia.)

The game they play in heaven has been played in the "sports capital of Australia" for over 100 years. But it is 2011, when Victoria gets the chance to make a significant and more permanent mark on the national and international scene.

Victoria's debut on the Super-15 stage on February 18 will be laced with significant symbolism - new stadium, new competition, traditional enemies. But nothing will match the sheer relief and celebration for the loyal and long-suffering members of the Victorian rugby community.

Having had the privilege of working within the rugby community, it is hard to be anything other than excited about the Rebels. The lure of a super-rugby team in Melbourne has been part of the Victorian, and Australian rugby language for nearly 20 years. So for this rhetoric to become reality is a delicious dream come true.

At the immediate level, the prospect of first class and regular rugby is such a salivating prospect. The real joy, though, is the crystal ball five years down the track.

The Victorian Rugby Union has wrestled over the years with the immediate needs of a small, tight and tightly resourced community, counter-balanced by setting the scene in anticipation for as smooth an integration as possible with the professional game so that Victoria can hit the ground running in making a further and enlarged contribution to rugby in Australia.

On the field, a generation of Rebels players will have established their mark and the Rebels' style of play. Just as importantly, a generation of junior rugby players will have played "alongside" their team with their state and national aspirations fuelled by local role models and local presence.

Knowing that your best talent has to leave town to advance their opportunities requires both reality and maturity, especially when investment in talent development means that the fruits will be borne beyond your boundaries.

Recent Victorian Wallaby graduates such as Ewen McKenzie - current coach of Queensland - and current and prospective Wallabies Digby Ioane and Christian Leilifano, have all had to leave as young men to stake their claim for national honours. Their names mingle with the more than 30 names such as 'Weary' Dunlop, the recently and dear departed Stan Bissett - both top Victorian rugby players and war heroes, and Dave Cowper, father of "Wallaby" Bob Cowper.

Now the role of honour has the chance to include Victorian success stories who have been able to remain in Victoria and playing for the local team.

The VRU's planning has also included initiatives off the field. The Weary Dunlop Club, established in 1998, has provided a connection for the many rugby supporters who may not have had immediate club connections but were desperately keen to maintain their link to their game. It also has brought the corporate community into the fold, a critical requirement for fast-tracking off-field success for the new professional team.

Now with an ongoing and media recognised presence, rugby has a powerful platform to launch itself into the broader Victorian community.

The key will be the engagement with the wonderful army of club rugby devotees - players, coaches, referees and administrators. In other parts of the rugby world the professional game attempts to run quite separately from the club community. It does so at its peril.

The great sense of anticipation is enhanced by the strong and proven hands steering the Rebels. In Rod Macqueen (pictured, above) the team has not only an outstanding coach with an unmatched record, it has a man who understands the big picture as well as any artist. Indeed Macqueen's public insistence that prospective Rebels sign on not simply to play, but to take on the "Rebel pledge", makes him, and his team stand apart at the outset. The Rebel pledge builds on core qualities required for any team to be successful - Respect, Excellence, Balance, Ethos, Leadership.

Of course the test will be the behaviours that truly illustrate the pledge - as they do for all of us.

But the articulation of what the Pledge means, complemented by the up-front commitment to contribute to the community - rugby and general, is what truly causes the desire to hasten slowly but anticipate the rugby scene in 2016.

The pledge and the game have been embraced by the Rebels' Chairman, Harold Mitchell, a person with deep and rich experience, not just in commerce, but in life. This has made him a fierce competitor, but more importantly a fierce contributor to Victoria across a broad rainbow of causes. His deserved reputation for success and loyalty, alongside his devotion to community and to family makes Mitchell a magnificent leader for the Rebels' lofty off-field ambitions.

In Ross Oakley, the administration has an experienced and respected leader, one who knows Melbourne and knows the power, potential and pitfalls of sport in this state.

They are all supported by carefully selected lieutenants whose challenge and opportunity, and obligation, is to embody too the rebel pledge. The common and united collective is an irresistible force.

The Victorian rugby community is tight and generous to invited guests. Above this is the overwhelming quality of resilience. This is why Victorian are entitled to a strong sense of optimism and confidence.

It is only a little more than 100 sleeps until the Melbourne Rebels debut match in the Super 15 series against the NSW Waratahs - a delightful sub-plot of traditional rivalry within a brand new context.

May this first encounter become the foundation for another famous chapter for Victoria and for rugby in Australia.