PLAYERS appearing in tonight's clash between Sydney Fleet and Melbourne Rebels could have easily switched uniforms had early contract offers been taken up. Up to seven Fleet stars rejected requests to join the Rebels, while a number of Melbourne's players were in the wider group of the strong Sydney franchise but wanted a better chance of starting matches.

Players such as Luke Burgess, David Dennis and Heamani Lavaka headed south, and now get a chance to prove themselves against the high-profile Fleet recruits - who are also their club teammates - at Olympic Park in round four of the Australian Rugby Championship.

"Because we had to pick a side so early we had a first 15 chosen, and there were a lot of guys in the squad of 28 who thought it might be too difficult to break into the team," Fleet coach Col Jeffs said. "They decided to go to Melbourne where they felt they'd get a better run, and I can't blame them for that."

Eight players starting for the Rebels tonight were eligible for the Fleet: Easts' Burgess, Lavaka and Richard Stanford; and Sydney University's Dennis, Scott Cameron, Dan Kelly, Nathan Trist and Peter Playford.

Melbourne suffered their first loss last weekend, going down 31-10 to the Western Sydney Rams.

The Fleet have gone win-loss-win, but Jeffs is hoping the side is now settled. "We're still trying to come to terms with the style of game these boys have been playing at their respective clubs," he said. "I think we've got it now. We've just got to get our structure, of how we want to play within the new rules."

The Rebels are leaving no stone unturned in their bid to qualify for the finals, and invited highly respected AFL Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse to give the players a pep talk yesterday.

"Mick is one of the great coaches in not only AFL, but any sporting code," Melbourne skipper David Croft said. "He knows just what it takes to come back from a defeat and win the pressure games.

"There's a lot of pressure on us against Sydney. It's a must-win game."

Meanwhile, Rams coach Brian Melrose has warned that complacency is the biggest enemy of his young troops. The Rams, led by the brilliant Kurtley Beale, have surged to second on the ARC ladder, one point behind Canberra, following two impressive wins, and they play the Ballymore Tornadoes at Parramatta Stadium tomorrow.

"Being good is just about being consistent," Melrose said. "A couple of wins doesn't make a season. We've got to concentrate on our consistency and keep moving forward.

"It's nice that we've set out to achieve certain things, and we're going along quite well. But we've done nothing yet.

"We probably weren't one of the teams tipped to be big contenders. But as they say, it's easy to go from a rooster to a feather-duster."

If Beale continues to weave his magic, it could be the Tornadoes eating dust - they have the worst defence in the competition.

After a morale-boosting 44-15 win over the East Coast Aces last weekend, Central Coast Rays coach John McKee has named an unchanged side to play Perth Spirit at Central Coast Stadium on Sunday. That means the NRL-bound Jared Waerea-Hargreaves has missed selection again.

After signing with the Manly Sea Eagles last week, the back-rower was left out of the Rays side because McKee said he wanted an extra prop on the bench.