Dwayne Russell believes a franchise player outside the salary cap would suit AFL clubs.
Inspired by this week’s release of nine unnamed AFL players who earned $1 million or more in 2019, Russell put forward the radical idea as a way to further reward the game’s top players while potentially increasing player movement.
“I’d like the whole thing opened up,” Russell said on his program SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“I would have one player per club as a franchise player. You can pay them what you like and it doesn’t get included in the salary cap.
“That's the way I would do it in five or six years' time.
“Because then it becomes more that the market determines your price.”
Russell cited Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe as a prime example.
“So Nat Fyfe, to me, is worth more than $1 million to Fremantle. But they have to only pay him $1 million because they’ve got to pay everybody else,” he added.
“Whereas, if they were able to pay Nat Fyfe what he probably is worth to stop him from going anywhere else, he is probably worth $2 million a year.
“So I could see that with Nat Fyfe, we’re costing him money by having this kind of salary cap.”
The former Geelong and Port Adelaide player added: “But if there wasn’t a salary cap and you had one franchise player per team, it will also maybe help a little bit of player movement as well.
“If you knew that somebody else was their franchise player on $1.2 (million), but you thought, ‘We want to get him, so we can offer him two (million), because we just want that player, we need that player’.
“At the moment it’s capped and it helps because there are a lot of clubs that can’t afford to pay big bucks.”
Former St Kilda and North Melbourne midfielder Nick Dal Santo agrees somewhat, suggesting that the absolutely elite players should be remunerated more handsomely.
“I’d love to see more money go to the best players to actually promote the very best,” he said.
“Give them more and just take a snip off these middle range players who aren’t doing more than just the average.”
In summary, Russell admitted: “The salary cap, we don’t know what it’s going to be in three years’ time.
“It could expand by 25% so that would defeat my argument, because they’ll be able to earn $1.6 (million) anyway.”
Listen to Dwayne Russell's views on franchise players on SEN's Dwayne's World in the player below