Yeah one of the main reasons why it exists is that thanks to John O'Neill's mismanagement clubs almost sent themselves broke and created an arms race that has seen teams hoard players trying to get to that level. Clubs like Gordon and Randwick haven't recovered on the field and I say their finances still aren't great either. Penrith are gone and likely to go to Twiggy. I almost spat out my drink when the Norths president said that their Rugby program costs 500k. Why spend 500k when you don't have it.
The NSWRU were just too stupid not to take control like the QRU did so what occurred is that clubs spent more money on paying for tenders so they could take control and phase out the clubs that don't have the money so they have no input.
Rugby is still paying for the reckless decisions that stemmed from John O'Neill's woeful second tenure as CEO. The other costly mistake he made was bringing in the Rebels when we didn't have the players and the money to finance it. It led to a poor private ownership model which allowed the first owners to walk away with a pile of debt so the RA ended up paying for it anyway. All of that money thrown away to the detriment of grassroots, coach and player development.
The Rebels also took players out of the Shute Shield funnily enough due to them being part of the establishment the SRU doesn't kick up as much of a stink about that compared to when the Force and Brumbies signed players from there. I remember the Manly president and coach throwing his toys out of the cot due to Jake White taking Robbie Coleman and Anthony Hegarty off them so they had to play for ACT clubs. They screamed 'get your own players' despite the two boys being ACT juniors and going back to their rightful home. Australian Rugby needs more Twiggys and Jake Whites to stand up to these self interested parasites.