Think James Tedesco and Mitchell Moses.

Yes these players have the potential to become greats of the game, however, neither of them has even played finals football.

Daly Cherry-Evans (an average of $1.25 million a year), Jarryd Hayne ($1.2m), Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Jason Taumalolo ($1 million) are currently the highest paid players in the game.

But they have played for their state and country with all but Hayne winning a premiership.

Gould did not hold back in his assessment of players and their managers holding clubs to ransom.

“No individual should be earning $1 million out of this fixed-wage salary cap,” Gould writes in his Wide World of Sports column.

“ ... For me, $1 million footballer, would have to be winning somewhere between 60-70% of the games he plays. He would also have to be a significant contributor to that winning percentage.

“The players today that the media tout as million-dollar footballers fall well short of these criteria.

“In an $8.3 million salary cap, which must be spread across 30 players, with a proposed minimum wage of $100,000, I say there is no player currently in the game today who could command $1 million a season out of this figure.”