I find it hard to believe that it was not economical for QF to go to Rome. I saw the loads on those flights and it was pretty much full of pax and freight every time. For those that tried to use staff travel on it, they will also testify that it was difficult to get on most of the year.
If you can't make money with an aircraft full of pax and freight, perhaps you should get out of the airline game. I think that most of the routes they pulled out of were economical, but there is more money to be made on other routes. If that is the case just say so, and don't continually feed everyone BS.