Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has hinted there is no guarantee Australia will lose a Super Rugby team.

Sanzaar has demanded Australia drop one of its five franchises for 2018 with the Australian Rugby Union deliberating between the Melbourne Rebels and Western Force.

But Cheika, speaking on Fox Sport's Kick & Chase show, seemed to suggest it was not necessarily a done deal.

Asked for an opinion on the timeframe as to when the team that is being cut will be announced, Cheika played a straight bat.

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"The timeframe issues, there's so many parts to this," Cheika said.

"You don't actually know where the resolution is. We'll see what happens with that.

"As far as players are concerned, we know in Australia there's a general attrition of somewhere of 10 or 15 per cent of players in any Super Rugby year that either go overseas or retire, et cetera.

"We think not too many of our players who are in the system would miss out if that happens. I'll say if that happens, because there is no guarantee that is going to happen."

Cheika said he feels for players at the Melbourne Rebels but has made the claim the club's footballers are the ones in charge of their own destiny and are able to create certainty around their futures.

His comments came as Rebels assistant coach Morgan Turinui lashed out at the Australian Rugby Union and the Rugby Union Players Association for their inaction during the Super Rugby season.

Cheika had a slightly different take on the uncertainty affecting players who are begging for a resolution sooner than later.

"The issue around certainty in anyone's life is made by the person themselves," Cheika said.

"They make the decision of 'yes, I believe that there's going to be a good outcome here and I'm going to be able to play with a team next year, maybe my current team or another team', like any player does at the end of any season when they decide 'what are my options'?"

"I'm not in any way saying that it's great they have that uncertainty from a broader perspective, don't get me wrong.

"But at the end of the day, we're all in charge of our own destiny as far as that's concerned, and we make those decisions."

Cheika believed Turinui's spray on Tuesday was in part a way to rev up the squad, who are clearly suffering the effects of not knowing if their franchise will exist beyond the year.

"Morgan is a close friend of mine … and there's a young coach there in his first year of Super Rugby being put under a lot of pressure being the spokesman out there for saying that," Cheika said.

"He's totally doing what a coach would do and that's look after his players.

"He'll also be using that type of rhetoric in his talk about galvanising his team. They are galvanising that team down there. A lot of people will learn a lot about themselves."

Meanwhile, Cheika's words of hope would seem cold comfort to Rebels captain Nic Stirzaker, who has again called for the ARU to make a call for the sake of all those suffering.

"It's definitely having an impact," Stirzaker said.

"But it's not just players, it's staff as well.

"The uniqueness of our situation is that we were sort of given guarantees that we had a future in Super Rugby and then almost weekly there'd be a new rumour that we didn't and then maybe we do.

"So that rollercoaster spread a lot of anxiety and inability for guys to plan for their lives, which I really feel for them and the whole group.

"There's a lot of us in the group who have knocked back opportunities overseas or elsewhere with the belief that the club's going to be around and now we're not so sure.

"All those things create a lot of stress for the guys, guys that have had just had families, just had babies or have kids at new schools, or don't know whether they can sign a new lease."