Even though their primary purpose is that of a weapon, when quizzing the average layman about boomerangs, most would recognise these symbols of cultural endurance for their colloquial ability to return to their point of origin.

Apart from playing AFL football, each of the 10 names on this list have at least one thing in common โ€“ they all came back to their original clubs after spending time with another.

Although names like David Cloke and Warwick Capper completed their careers back at their first clubs and within the bounds of the AFL era, we have ruled them ineligible due to their peaks arising prior to 1990.

Like Elvis' love letters in the early sixties, these are the 10 best players that were returned to their senders.

5. Paul Salmon

Essendon/Hawthorn/Essendon

Of the 10 names on this list, it is fairly simple to discern the club with which the majority played their best football.

The same cannot be said for Essendon, and Hawthorn, legend, Paul Salmon.

Although โ€˜The Big Fish' spent 14 of his 19 seasons at AFL/VFL level clad in red and black, his interjecting 100-game stint with the Hawks can best be described as spectacularly efficient.

After just nine games in his debut season at Windy Hill in 1983, Salmon exploded the following year, finishing with over 100 shots on goal for 63 majors.

Following a total knee reconstruction, Salmon was asked to spend time in the ruck, alternating between the forward fifty and centre circle with club legend Simon Madden.

Despite this twin pillared obligation, Salmon still managed to top the Dons' goalkicking chart in seven of his first 11 seasons in a sash, as well as claim All-Australian honours in 1987 and '88.

The North Ringwood product may have played a vital role in Essendon's premiership successes of 1985 and 1993, but after citing creative differences with coach Kevin Sheedy, he crossed to bitter rival Hawthorn ahead of the 1995 season.

As mentioned, Salmon only lined up for the Hawks over five seasons. However, in this time he was awarded a pair of Peter Crimmins medals, an All-Australian position in 1997, the Michael Tuck medal in '99 and a place in Hawthorn's star-studded Team of the Century.

Although he came out of retirement for one final season with the Bombers in 2002, and eventually earned a place in their Hall of Fame, identifying the time and place of Salmon's peak could well require a Peter Temple protagonist.