The revolving door of staff and officials at the Melbourne Rebels' Super 15 club continues to turn with the sudden resignation of three board members a fortnight ago.

The trio - Leon L'Huillier, Tony Hodgson and Peter Hemming - resigned en masse late last month, after apparently experiencing 'differences of opinion' with the team's owner, prominent Melbourne businessman Harold Mitchell.

Their names have already been removed from the Rebels' website, leaving a board of five.

The exodus has again focussed attention on the uneasy relationship between the Rebels and the game's rulers.

The sport is run from ARU headquarters in Sydney - with John O'Neill as chief executive; the Melbourne Rebels are the first privately owned rugby team in Australia - with Mitchell as the majority stakeholder.

Both men have strong personalities, are used to getting their way and could be described as control freaks. Neither is accustomed to giving ground.

Because Mitchell has no background in the game, as a player, administrator or supporter, he is viewed with suspicion by the ARU, a view magnified by his sometimes bombastic personality.

For his part, Mitchell - and the team he's installed at the Rebels - dislike having their every move scrutinised and reviewed by head office. 

There has been this mutual antipathy almost from day one.

L'Huillier, a Woolworths director, is Melbourne-based, while Hodgson and Hemming live in Sydney.

The Sydney association was nominated as one reason for the falling out - ''It's like trying to have Melbourne people run the Waratahs,'' said one insider - but it is thought Mitchell's dynamic and sometimes eccentric leadership has also ruffled feathers.

The problems are said to have begun recently with the need to make important decisions quickly.

With less than 10 weeks to go before the club's inaugural Super 15 appearance, a Rebels' insider said some decisions had to be made on the run, perhaps without all the attention to detail that might normally be expected. He said start-up businesses, such as the Rebels, required flexibility, versatility and the ability to adapt to change and a smaller board was a good thing because it was better able to meet those challenges.

L'Huillier was seen as an important figure in the setting up of the club, and his hard work would be missed. Hodgson was an ARU appointee while Hemming was a relative newcomer, having attended barely a handful of meetings. 

Of those in the revolving door, former Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron was poached by the Rebels as CEO but was forced to resign only weeks into his new job after being implicated in the Storm's salary cap scandal. Similarly, former Athletics Australia boss Danny Corcoran was hired by the Rebels, but decided to relinquish his post after being approached by Essendon to join James Hird's new team at Windy Hill.  

But the Rebels have also done plenty right in their short existence. The signing of former World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen is seen universally as a major coup, while former AFL CEO Ross Oakley has been appointed the club's chief executive.

On the playing side, Stirling Mortlock and British fly-half Danny Cipriani headline an impressive squad. 

The Rebels' season kicks off on 18 February, with an opening-round match against the NSW Waratahs at home at AAMI Park.