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IF it has always the best option to reduce 5 to 4 (which we don't buy into), the most sensible, reasonable and appropriate option was always for the Rebels to go. But this is not the best option. 5 sides should remain - but none in "private/for profit" ownership.
The Force may have been the ARU & the broadcasters choice to get the axe but it was, and will never happen. You cannot call a bluff on 10's of thousands of people, and expect them to buy the turd lines you throw at them. Apart from wins on the field, the Force are the strongest franchise in the country. We've only ever needed a $3mil bailout - which came about because of the worst economic downturn the state has ever seen (we couldn't get sponsors). Crowds, memberships, sponsor dollars, grassroots registration/participation numbers, media coverage, corporate support, government support - while the Force aren't No.1 in all those catagories, combining them make the Force the best franchise.
What's broken with the game is the management. All Australian players should be running around in Australian Super teams. The only ones we allow to go OS should be the ones that aren't good enough. Get the best players back in Australia.
Sack/scrap the board and form an ARU commission with voting rights based on each associations registration numbers, create an Australian Super Rugby Draft, reward franchises with recruitment incentives based on the strength of their state/grassroots/junior participation, introduce recruitment/draft payments (eg: Nedlands gets $ when one of their players is signed by a Super franchise), enforce community work requirements into Super contracts, overhaul the salary cap and increase it by 50%, scrap the NRC and create a national youth/reserves competition limited to the five super franchises only, ensure each territory has an academy program with national uniform funding and management structures, pull rugby out of the Murdoch/Foxtel anal cavity and get it on FTV, actually get the ARU to start working with state & federal governments, create a new ARU constitution with an Australia First direction to ensure every decision made is in the best interests of the nation game and not international competitions or obligations.
And recruit Alan Jones to spearhead the reform process.