Subtly pointing to Greater Western Sydney's status as a "recipient club", AFL bosses attempted to toughen Cameron's performance clauses and - in the event of him being sacked - reduce the size of his payout.

GWS chief Dave Matthews, with the backing of his chairman Tony Shepherd and the Giants board, refused to submit to the AFL push. The Giants announced in July that Cameron would coach the club until at least the end of 2020 after signing a two-year extension. The coach was already tied up until the end of next season.

Matthews and his team reportedly told the AFL that no such restrictions applied to other clubs that received additional funding. Under the terms of the Giants agreement with the competition, no major contractual agreements can be made without the league's approval.

Cameron, 45, will coach the Giants in their second successive preliminary final at the MCG in his fourth season with the club as senior coach after serving an apprenticeship at GWS under Kevin Sheedy.

It is the second time the AFL has attempted but failed to place stronger restrictions over Cameron's contract, a move it also tried on Brisbane when the Lions extended Justin Leppitsch's contract two years ago. Negotiations between Geelong and coach Chris Scott dragged into the start of this season when the Cats baulked at paying out the coach the full length of his contract, which was extended until the end of 2019.

The Giants' view, one strongly pushed by Matthews, is that the AFL's youngest club, with a low supporter base, cannot hope to become successful and respected unless it stands up to the AFL and is treated like other, more powerful clubs.

The complexities of the AFL's relationship with its 17th and 18th clubs were again highlighted last week when Gold Coast made overtures to contracted Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley and indicated it was prepared to offer him a five-year deal.

The prevailing view among the other clubs was that the league would have been happy had Hinkley taken over the struggling Suns. AFL chief Gillon McLachlan fielded a series of concerned calls from Port chairman David Koch, who made it clear he would not be releasing Hinkley from his deal.

Gold Coast chief Mark Evans was acutely aware the Suns could not, as a recipient AFL club, offer Hinkley a more generous financial offer than Port Adelaide.

Hinkley ultimately signed a three-year extension with Port after the club had initially offered two years. Although the coach has to achieve a certain level of success to receive his third contracted year, those performance clauses were watered down by the club during negotiations over last weekend.

Powerful manager Craig Kelly, who manages Cameron and Chris Scott and has railed against the push for reduced coach payouts, told Fairfax Media in February: "Senior coaches have to be treated differently.

"They need to be protected more than anyone else at a club because when it goes wrong, it's stressful, it's embarrassing and it really knocks these guys around.

"These guys can take a long time to recover and it's terrible for their wives and families as well."

Hinkley's wife Donna, who was reportedly keen to entertain a long-term deal with Gold Coast, played a pivotal role in the coach's confrontational meeting one week ago with Port's off-field hierarchy.

BROWNLOW MEDAL GUIDE