Six years ago, former salary cap auditor Ian Schubert gave consideration to pressure testing a points system that rewards loyalty.

A five-man sub-committee of club chief executives was formed in 2010 to consider the radical proposal and Schubert showed interest in trialling it alongside the salary cap.

The initiative – which could potentially allow players to earn as much as a club is prepared to pay them – was considered after Melbourne were heavily sanctioned for systematically rorting the salary cap, with a view to prevent such scandals in the future.

The latest cap scandal at Parramatta has put the points proposal back in the forefront of the minds of some of the game's past and present powerbrokers.

Canberra CEO Don Furner was part of the five-man sub committee formed to look at alternative models to the salary cap.

The working group looked at a points system that looked at a 100-point model that graded every player based on factors including NRL and representative experience, with discounts to one-club and long-serving players.

"It's the only system you can have that realistically can't be cheated," Furner said.

"It also doesn't restrict player earnings. Schuey [Schubert] used to be of the view that it had to be done in conjunction with some type of cap to save the clubs from themselves. But if you have 100 points, you have 100 points.

"They were a bit worried that there wasn't a major competition – whether it be league, union, AFL, gridiron or whatever – that had a points system they could look at. It would have been a huge jump, but it was transparent.

"It's certainly worth taking further and exploring if there is an appetite for it. It could be ground-breaking in Australian sport, in all professional sport."

The points system isn't without precedent in rugby league. Canberra's local competition implemented the policy several years ago and it has also been used in the Illawarra league.

How many points would Johnathan Thurston be? Photo: Getty Images

Former Brisbane CEO Bruno Cullen, who was also a member of the committee, believes the proposal warrants further investigation.

"The thing that attracted me most to it was that players could maximise their value if they came up through the junior ranks and stayed with the club," Cullen said.

"Whether they played representative football or not, they could get discounts for being a one-club member, which would keep those State of Origin and Test games ratings down to a more reasonable level.

"With players getting squeezed into the salary cap under the odds a bit because they really wanted to stay, they could stay and maximise their potential earnings.

"No one likes change, people will say this and that, talk about 'how about the rich clubs?' or 'how about the poor clubs?'

"Few step back and think about what it means to the game as a whole. There will always be a bit of push back, but if people take a deep breath and think about it, it's not a bad system to at least consider."

Schubert set up a trial valuation system in 2010 alongside the salary cap at a time when the limit was $4.1 million. He produced a series of notional base values; for instance, a player with zero to one NRL game was worth $50,840, all the way through to a veteran with 300-324 games, whose base value was $339,000.

Additional loadings were added for those with representative experience, while discounts were applied the longer a player stayed at a club or if they were dropped from first grade. 'Spine' players attracted extra loadings.

Under this model, Warriors forward Steve Price was the most valuable player in the game at $341,712, just ahead of fellow prop Petero Civoniceva at $339,000. The Gold Coast was the side valued the highest, coming in at $3,916,456.

A simpler points system was proposed by former Cronulla chairman Damian Irvine. Under his rules, each club couldn't exceed 100 points for the top 25 players.

Player yet to play first grade are worth two points, those with 0-50 games are worth three, and those with more than 50 NRL games were worth four. Representative players were worth five or six depending on the level they reached.

Furner – who drafted a paper on the concept – and Cullen conceded there would always be debates about a player ratings, but believed the proposal should be back on the table.

"The Roosters may argue that it wouldn't be possible for them to feed local talent through in the same way [as Brisbane]," Cullen said.

"I would disagree with them. While the Broncos have the whole of Queensland in their backyard, you can only sign so many and the rest are available for everyone else to pick up and train."