It was reported on Tuesday that as many as six AFL players earned a seven-figure sum in 2021 - a significant portion of the $13.4m salary cap.

But while fans and media alike love to debate who is worth what, it's not as simple as ranking the six best players in the competition and paying them accordingly.

In addition to what a player offers on the field, there are a number of factors that determine just how much they're worth - age, whether they're on an upward or downward spiral, other star players to pay at their club, whether they're in their 'home' state and when they signed their contract, to name but a few.

Here, we look at the players reported to be on $1m or more in 2021 - Dustin Martin, Lance Franklin, Jeremy McGovern, Brodie Grundy and Nat Fyfe - plus a couple tipped to reach that mark in 2022 - Christian Petracca and Tom Lynch - and determine whether it's money well spent ...

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7. Christian Petracca

The Dees' 2021 season, breaking a 57-year premiership drought, was remarkable for many reasons.

But Christian Petracca's grand final performance - arguably the best grand final performance of all time - was as good as anything Melbourne produced.

Taken with pick #2 in the 2014 National Draft, Petracca has always shown plenty of talent but his inconsistency was the source of frustration for Dees fans across his early years in the AFL.

He led the club's goalkicking in 2019 but the penny seemed to drop in 2020, with Petracca improving his fitness and making the move into the midfield.

That saw him win the club's best and fairest and claim his first All Australian guernsey in 2020, making it back-to-back All Australians in the 2021 premiership year.

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Petracca has formed a deadly midfield three-piece with Clayton Oliver and Max Gawn, with the star trio supported by the likes of James Harmes, Angus Brayshaw and Jack Viney.

With his ability to hit the scoreboard, either as a midfielder or forward (he kicked 15 goals in 17 games in 2020 and 29 goals in 25 games in 2021), Petracca is a genuine match-winner who is capable of turning a game in the space of a quarter.

At just 26 years of age, the Eastern Ranges product has plenty of footy left ahead of him - if he can continue his form of the past two seasons, he'll go down as one of the Dees' all-time greats.

Verdict: On his past two seasons, especially 2021, he's as good as any player in the competition and deserves to be paid accordingly. The question is whether he can continue to produce that on a consistent basis - if yes, he's well worth it.

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