There are some significant gaps between our professional footballers and those professional athletes in many other sports.
The AFL has somehow allowed our players to get the security of contracts from clubs and yet when the players wants to move for better deals it seems that many clubs are almost powerless to stop them.
In many other competitions players can be traded like a commodity often without the right of refusal and while I don't agree to that in our competition the player can't be so specific with their requests for trades.

I'm suggesting that if a contracted player requests a trade to a club then the contract that is in place needs to be honored by his new club. The player and the new club need to contribute 10% of the existing contract to the club that is losing the player. The money that the new club has to pay also comes off their salary cap.

For example the player has 1 year to go on his contract but wants to head home. He is on a $300K deal for that year.
The player then has to pay 10% of the value of his existing contract (30K) to his club to break that contract with them.
The new club also has to pay a 10% premium (30K) to buy out the contract to the club losing the player and this comes off their salary cap.

The player plays the following season for $270K and this new club has $330K coming of their salary cap. The club that has lost the contracted player receives an extra $60K they can use on their salary cap or bank it.

The level of players wanting the security of contracts but also wanting to break them to secure better deals is a lot higher than it should be and this just isn't fair and there needs to be a fairer set-up that protects the clubs who have often drafted, developed and provided security to the player.

I'd be interested in your thoughts?