Greatest restriction on lower clubs is the dollars they can offer, matching only top clubs, where finals Fòotball and successful team are rewards. ( as per goodoil above). The AFL cap of $10 mill per club is restrictive to lower clubs as 90-95% must be paid each season. Surely our list is not commercially the same value as The premiers.
If a rolling 5 year cap was introduced, where Clubs had to spend their 50 million over 5 years, then this could possibly allow greater response from lower clubs. Our current list is probably worth 6 million compared to the Hawks, until this anomaly is rectifies by both the AFL and Lower clubs, this turmoil will continue.