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The ARU needs money, but it also needs a viable and strong Super Rugby conference. The problem with the current system is the two do not walk hand-in-hand, because Australia does not have the depth to sustain five competitive franchises.
But if Australia reduces its teams from five to three, then it loses a large share of the Super Rugby pot.
Equally however, being committed until 2020 to five sides could be a disaster for Australian rugby.
Trying to produce five competitive sides was ambitious at best, and pie-in-the-sky dreaming at worst.
Factor in the talent drain to Europe and things only get worse. One of the biggest stars of Australian rugby, David Pocock, is also taking a year off next season to continue his studies.
Going back to three sides is step backwards, and though four is still a stretch, it is at least viable.
The team that should go is the Force, with their best players (and they have some very good individuals) going to the Reds and the steadily improving Rebels. Other players may fight for employment at the Waratahs, Brumbies or overseas.
Queensland is fading due to poor performances and being about as organised as a pack of seals born in captivity then suddenly released into the wild.
This has come about through dreadful coaching, bad management, a poor transition when Ewen McKenzie left, and a group of players that seem to only have the stomach for games playing traditional Australian rivals.
The Reds should never have hung on to an underperforming and injury-prone Quade Cooper for as long as they did.
Cooper will go down as talented footballer who lacked a cool temperament under pressure and who never seemed to learn from his mistakes.
Prior to the 2015 World Cup, Michael Cheika sprung to his defence. As if to prove his very publicly proclaimed faith in Cooper, he then tested him against the All Blacks at Eden Park.
Here, Cheika surely got a reality check.
During the game some of Cooper’s trademark errors resurfaced, as did his poor tactical kicking game, and that eternally suspect defence.
That was the beginning of the end of the Test career for the flamboyant playmaker.
He only played one game the 2015 World Cup, and against second-tier opposition. Due to injuries to other players’, Cooper was fortunate to be sitting on the bench against Scotland, but never played.
Cheika knew risking Cooper making an error in a tight contest would have been suicide for both him and the Wallabies.
It will be one of the great questions of Australian rugby why they couldn’t see what Robbie Deans could see sooner: that Cooper was a talented but flawed player, whose risk factor was too high in Tests against the best sides.
Much to Cooper’s well-documented disgust, Deans got that call right. The Reds didn’t until it was too late.
The New Zealand sides, following the lead of the All Blacks, had figured out how to rattle Cooper, and shut down Will Genia’s running game. This was instrumental in initiating Genia’s form slump.
It wasn’t long before other franchises in Australia and South Africa tried to copy the kiwi tactics and things went from bad to worse.
We learnt that without his running game, Genia was brought back to the pack.
His box kicking was average, his passing game at times was hit-and-miss, and he visibly took his frustrations out verbally on his forwards, which could not possibly have been good for the team’s internal relations.
Genia was a wonderful player at his peak, but his attacking running game and defence were his key weapons. Once the former was shut down, the weaknesses in the other parts of his game became exposed, and his coolness under fire was seriously tested.
It has been over two years since Ewen McKenzie left a club that was on the slide in the latter stages of his charge. Regardless, they should have rebuilt by now, but have not.
What the Reds need is an injection of fresh talent, with the emphasis on ‘talent’, especially in the backs, who look like they are still performing clumsy high-school backline plays.
They should hire an overseas coach who is not attached in some way to their recent turmoil, or Australian rugby in general.
The ARU should also take a leaf out rugby league’s national structure in the sense that, apart from Melbourne, they have not wasted time and money by persisting with trying to break new ground in Adelaide and Western Australia.
Playing rugby should first and foremost be played in its strongholds of Queensland, NSW and Canberra, with Melbourne, due to its population, being worth investing time and money into.
Western Australia may have a large South African population to tap into, but South Africans like to win rugby, and they would as sooner watch a game on the box than waste money at the ground unless a South African franchise is in town.
Down the track, if the talent pool increases and interest in the game follows, the ARU should look at putting another side in Sydney or Queensland.
Always put more rugby in the heartlands before you put it in places where you have to teach half the locals the rules.
Finally, the ARU must, at all costs, get games on free-to-air TV, just as league, football and AFL do. The hijacking of the game by Fox is helping the game on the one hand, and steadily killing it on the other. In the interests of the future of the game, Fox have to play ball here.
They also need more day games, so families can go to an afternoon of footy.
In short, the ARU and TV networks controlling the game must get their collective heads out of the sand, or they will oversee the decline of the game in this country.
Money is vital, but the integrity and strength of the game should always take precedent, because in the long term this will generate income, and continue to feed the game.
Anything else is simply folly.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.