Listening to Jordan Lewis tonight on 360, I reckon I've come up with the way the Gold Coast could work.
Turn the side into a graveyard for former players. Every year just top up with good players coming to the end of their careers, trade every low pick out and just top up the list with second tier players keen for a chance at the top level. They would be able to pay some nice super to guys on the edge of retiring to go a couple more years, and most of them want to anyway. You'd also create premiership chances for guys who had never been able to win one.
There's holes in this everywhere but just for example, their team put together over the past couple of years would be:
B: Heath Shaw Dale Morris Andy Otten
HB: Kade Simpson Harry Taylor Lewis Jetta
C: Travis Varcoe Bryce Gibbs Dale Thomas
HF: Alan Christensen Justin Westhoff Jack Watts
F: Brandon Matera Jarryd Roughhead Hayden Ballantyne
R: Sam Jacobs Gary Ablett Tom Scully
I: Cam McCarthy Ricky Henderson Paul Puopolo Will Scofield.
They would come for players like Jack Riewoldt, Bachar Houli, Shannon Hurn, Josh Kennedy (both), Callan Ward, Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Marc Murphy, Burgoyne, Betts, Mundy, Nathan Jones etc at the end of this year.
It would be competitive and pretty quickly catch on as a point of interest in the competition I think. Under stand the appeal of being a one club player but this would almost become a rep side to celebrate careers in and be a bit of an honour to be picked for. Would also save a lot of angst and uncomfortable meetings between players and clubs, and keep everyone on good terms.