I love the arguments that payments are out of control and the like. Apparently players are not worth what they are getting.
Clubs will only pay what they are prepared to, players will get paid what they are worth (simple economics that something is worth what someone is willing to pay).
My biggest issue is with the hypocritical idiots who suggest that someone should not be allowed to gain a little bit of extra income by risking their body once a week over 18-20 weeks of a year. I am sure that in their everyday job they do not offer to take a pay cut because there is someone out there in the world who does a similar job for less pay, nor forgoing earning a bit extra by getting a second job, sitting on a Board, selling things on eBay, investing, etc. I know of people who have made playing and coaching country football their primary job, how dare someone suggest that they should not be allowed to do that - if someone is willing to pay them, good luck to them.
It is all designed to protect two things; the AFL Reserves competition, a league that has no soul, no relevance and minimal future; and the Channel 9 Adelaide Football League, the behemoth league that is the result of the centralisation of metropolitan football from the 70s to the 90s, that has abandoned it's amateur principles, but wants to impose them on the rest of the state.
Change the SANFL to AFL South Australia as that is what it now represents; split up the SAAFL to re-establish district leagues with a central Amateur competition based around the Old Scholars cartel; reform the Country Football Championships into a divisional inter-league carnival rather than meaningless zones; and remove unnecessary regulatory policies (APPS, Salary Cap, Age Restrictions etc) from metropolitan and country clubs to allow them to just play football and represent their communities. Football would be a lot healthier in this state as a result.
By the way, I nominate this discussion started by Bag & Sledge for Thread of the Year.