The AFL have revealed their total expenditure on player payments for the 2021 season, with the league forking up $233.9 million to their on-field personnel last season.
Following a 2020 campaign that placed a 29.8 per cent decrease on player wages, last year's total is a significant increase on its preceding season, which was tallied at $170 million.
Across all 665 listed players the average salary was $372,224, up from $259,651 the year prior.
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In 2021, three players earned more than $1.2 million, with a further three names joining them in the seven-figure club last year.
According to AFL.com.au, Richmond star Dustin Martin, Swans forward Lance Franklin and Eagles defender Jeremy McGovern were within the top bracket of earners last year.
Trailing them were Dockers captain Nat Fyfe and Collingwood ruckman Brodie Grundy, who are believed to have been earning north of $1 million.
Franklin enters the final year of his lucrative nine-year, $10 million deal with Sydney and is expected to earn another mouth-watering sum this season.
McGovern is reportedly set to take a pay cut in 2022, with as much as $200,00 being shed from his salary this season and being placed later into his contract.
It is understood that Tigers tall Tom Lynch and Demons premiership star Christian Petracca, who re-signed with Melbourne on a new seven-year deal last May, are expected to earn more than $1 million in 2022.
In a stunning comparison to three decades ago, only eight players earned more than $100,000 in 1990, with a further 88 having pulled in between $60,001-$100,000 when featuring at the senior level.
442 of 538 players that season were placed on a wage equal to or less than $60,000.