No start for Kangaroo: Semi Radradra. Credit:Getty Images NSW and Queensland can decide to omit players for disciplinary reasons because they are run by semi-independent bodies. The NRL refuses to separate church and state when it comes to the Australian side. The NRL would never show bias towards NSW or Queensland because the teams are drawn from their competition. But there is a New Zealand team in the NRL and more than a dozen other national teams also draw players from the competition – yet the NRL is so biased towards Australia that its chairman reads out the team. That has made the Fifita situation a procedural mess. This creates operational anomalies like the one that prompted Wayne Bennett to simply ban Anthony Milford from playing for Samoa this year. He was stood down from Queensland and Australia for disciplinary reasons but no one had any jurisdiction over Samoan team selection – so his coach just forbade him from turning out in the Pacific Tests.

In truth the NRL should have stepped in and ordered Radradra's omission before the Anzac Test – for the sake of international rugby league. Now the residency rule has been changed so no one can be picked in his situation again and his involvement in that game will go down in history as embarrassing and foolish. He is precluded by his selection from playing for Fiji in next year's World Cup. The Australian Rugby League Commission was formed as an independent body in 2012 to make decisions in the interest of the sport. Its actions since strongly indicate a very limited style of independence – it is only independent from the NRL clubs. Repeatedly, it makes decisions which indicate that if the interests of the game conflict with the interests of the game in Australia, or with those of the Pacific where it engages with the federal government and attracts funding, it will go against the interests of the game each time. The health of the international game was not enough for Radradra's selection to be blocked in May but the fact he is under police investigation – potentially causing the Australian team embarrassment – clearly is now.

The ARLC cares more about the Australian team and its success than it does about the game as a whole. This faulty and prejudiced set-up will continue to be exposed by the chaos of the sport. Over and over again, situations will arise where the NRL's close relationship with the Australian team will create inequalities for its constituents who aren't Australian. Eventually, as happened with Origin when it was controlled completely by the competing teams and we had TBA on the wing and political refereeing appointments, safeguards will be introduced. But it looks like there will be many more Radradras before then. I was with an experienced American sports executive in Philadelphia at the weekend who could not comprehend a professional sports league also taking care of junior development and a national team. Such a set-up, he said, was bound to be awash with conflicts of interest. The Australian team should have a budget, be set up in an office at Homebush or Milton, and receive absolutely no favouritism from head office. If Australia chooses not to pick someone, Todd Greenberg and John Grant should have absolutely no say in the matter. They could then tell the RLPA: "It was Mal's call, not ours."