Frustrated that just one AFL player – Gary Ablett – had appeared on Business Review Weekly's Top 50 sports earners' list, published by Fairfax Media, AFLPA chief executive Paul Marsh has called for urgent action in terms of player remuneration.

Ablett was the highest paid player in the league last season, pocketing $1.5 million (including endorsements), but ranked only 47th on the rich list dominated by basketball, cricket, soccer and golf.

The average AFL player wage was $265,179 last year, with 33 per cent of the league's 729 players pocketing more than $300,000.

In the lead-up to discussions opening later this year with the AFL over a new collective bargaining agreement, Marsh reinforced the union's stance.

"In my view the AFL leads the way in Australian sport in its professionalism, the support services it offers its people and the remuneration it offers its executives. But the remuneration we are offering our players is lagging behind some of our major competitors. The sport has to look at this seriously," he said.

AFL great Wayne Carey also believes the salary cap needs to increase, declaring "the AFL need to lift the bar – the salary cap has got to go up."

Total player payments per club this year is $10.07 million, while a further $992,000 can be paid in additional services agreements.

Clubs, some of which are struggling for sponsorship and funds, have already privately expressed concerns the players will push for too great a rise, with this to be bankrolled by a new broadcast rights agreement. These TV rights discussions are likely to open with the share price of free-to-air channels Seven and Nine slipping significantly in the past year and Ten still in the doldrums.

Gordon said it was important all parties benefited from a five-year broadcast rights deal Fairfax Media revealed would most likely exceed more than $1.7 billion.

"I think everyone benefits from the popularity of the code and that we ought to anticipate that the revenue through TV rights is going to rise," Gordon said on Wednesday.

"I think the obligation the AFL has got in settling issues in the amount of money which goes to players is that it needs to look after the next generation of players as well. All of these players, including the highest paid players, who are benefiting so much from the money that is in the system at the moment, have got their opportunity through Auskick, have got their opportunity through junior footy.

"They may not have had that opportunity had the money not been made available to foster those programs. From my study of the industry, and I have chaired for the AFL a working group that has looked at junior participation rates in the western and north-western region of Melbourne over the last 12 months, we need to find more ways to invest in junior footy.

"We need to find more ways to invest in footy for girls, footy for multi-cultural communities. They are not just our next generation spectators, they are our next generation players."

Gordon said he did not know if all players understood the need for greater investment at a junior level, where the threat of soccer looms large.

"I think these things are always ongoing processes. I think it's wrong to generalise but I think there would be some players who would have thought of that. I hope the Players Association would have taken those things into consideration and I know the AFL would have considered those things," he said, speaking at the Sons of the West health initiative for men.

"If we don't continue to invest in junior footy, if we don't continue to invest in footy for girls, if we don't continue to invest in multi-cultural communities, then in 20 years' time the pie will shrink because we won't have grown the next generation of people that watch it, to be members, to play and be a part of the industry.

"The responsibility is not just to those who are playing now, and those who are playing now will hopefully recognise they just didn't become star footballers overnight. There is a whole industry, a whole infrastructure, that has been paid for by the previous generation which provided them with that opportunity."

Marsh, who had brokered significant pay deals for Australia's top cricketers before joining the AFLPA, said he was "concerned that the best players in the biggest sport in the country are so far down the list of earners".

"We, as an industry, need to ensure that playing in the AFL is the No.1 career choice for young sportsmen in this country," he told the players' website.

"Offering salaries reflective of the size, profitability and popularity of the game is a must. It just has to be an integral part of the AFL package."

On Twitter, he added: "An indictment on AFL that only 1 player makes top 50 highest earners in Australian sport despite being biggest sport."

There were 13 cricketers on the rich list, with even Shane Watson pocketing $4.5 million – eighth overall.