<P> The VFL / AFL's salary cap has been quite successful in terms of parity: since the cap was introduced in 1987, each of the 17 teams have played in a Preliminary Final, 16 teams have played in a Grand Final, and 13 teams have won the premiership . </P> <P> Another major statistic in regards to the success of the VFL / AFL's cap is that the three richest and most successful clubs, Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon, who won 41 of the premierships between them from 75 Grand Finals in the 90 seasons between 1897 and 1986 (83.3% of all Grand Finals for a 45.6% premiership success rate), have only won six of the premierships between them from eleven Grand Finals since (32.3% of all Grand Finals for a 19.4% premiership success rate). </P> <P> The AFL salary cap is occasionally controversial, as it is a soft salary cap and can sometimes be slightly different for each club . Clubs in poor financial circumstances have not always used their full cap, in some circumstances not even reaching the salary floor . The cap is only for the Total Player Payments of each club and not the club's football department . This has caused concern in recent years; for instance, three of the four top - spending clubs in played in the Preliminary Finals in 2012, and the last team to win the premiership outside the top eight spending teams was North Melbourne in 1999 . There have been calls for a separate cap for the football department, or to reform the salary cap to include football department spending, but this has been opposed by the wealthier clubs . The AFL has also used the cap to pursue its policy of supporting clubs in non-traditional markets such as Sydney and Brisbane . </P> <P> Apart from the AFL, several regional leagues also have salary caps which although widening between them and the AFL and overall less than national competitions, are substantial enough to dictate the movement of semi-professional and professional players between states and the overall playing quality and spectator attendance of the state leagues . </P>

Who has the lowest salary cap in the nfl