Phil Gould has admitted he expects more Sydney clubs will die or be forced to merge in the next decade.
Gould, Brad Fittler and Peter Sterling made predictions for the next 10 years of rugby league on Nine's The Greatest.
Nine teams based in Sydney is unsustainable in the long-term, according to Gould.
"My news isn't so great. I think we'll see two Sydney clubs, two more mergers in Sydney," he said.
"I think we'll see a reduction of teams in Sydney over the next 10 years. It's unsustainable and clubs won't survive. They'll either die or have to merge, they'll be in that situation."
Meanwhile, Fittler predicted the move to one referee, which is expected to be introduced when play resumes on May 28, will be here to stay.
"I think one referee will be a huge success," Fittler said.
"I think we see referees really get their confidence back, getting out in the middle and owning the game. I think it will be something that saves the game money and I think it will be a huge success."
Sterling asked for the end of "reactive" rule changes while conceding he didn't think scrums have a future in the game.
"I just want the game to chill for 10 years," he said.
"The game's there somewhere, we've just got to coax the right game out, and it's not going to be through reactive changes to rules.
"It's there. We've had too many rule changes in the last 10 years, let's sit back and relax a little bit.
"I will say that in 10 years time I don't think scrums will be in our game."
Bunnies and Roosters, Seaeagles and Sharks or Dogs and Panthers.
Souths Easts will never merge, never, Easts may go broke after Polites dies/leaves, no Souths will always be there, Cronulla Saints a given, Wests Bulldogs, Parra Penrith although i believe they will always be parra and penrith, Manly and ? who cares!!!!!
Interesting you say that Cronulla is a given, I would like to know why you think that ?
They have had a massive windfall in recent years I will give you and a lot of that has gone. Paying off debts is a good thing but I don’t see much expenditure by Cronulla that leads to increased revenue. There are some grounds for optimism with the influx of new people to the area but will that be enough to put numbers through the turnstiles and money in the bank? The sharks got themselves in a bad place largely because the club was not self sustaining so has that changed ? If it hasn’t then its only a matter of time before they are back on struggle street.