The four club presidents have asked Gillon McLachlan and his chairman Richard Goyder to attend initial discussions before the end of the football year. The move comes as Gold Coast languishes on the AFL critical list. Amid growing fears the Suns will lose another star in Jack Martin the club is also struggling to re-sign the youthful duo of Ben King and Jack Lukosius and are campaigning for a priority draft pick immediately after pick No.1. Mindful that COLA has become the most tarnished acronym in the competition, Swans chairman Pridham said the cost-of-living inequalities for the Sydney clubs needed to be urgently addressed "without the industry getting hysterical". Loading "I think whatever it's called there needs to be allowances in the soft cap and the salary cap," said Pridham. "This has to be addressed. It's the biggest issue in footy and it's come around to this point again."

When asked whether the Swans and the Giants would push to regain their player COLA, Pridham said: "It's dangerous putting labels on things and I know the feeling around COLA but we need to address this without getting hysterical. "That's why we have an independent commission. All four clubs in the non-traditional states need to sit down with the commission and calmly look at this. Coaches and players want more money to play in the non-traditional states and it's irrefutable that it costs more than 10 per cent extra to live in Sydney. "There's a whole lot of issues around player and coach retention and there needs to be a review. It's irrefutable to that there needs to be changes." It's dangerous putting labels on things and I know the feeling around COLA but we need to address this without getting hysterical. Andrew Pridham, Sydney chairman Swann said it was beyond dispute footballers living in Sydney faced financial disadvantages due to the heavier living costs. Having overseen an on-field resurrection at the Lions he also spoke of the adjustments which accompanied living outside the football heartland.

"The problem we have is that almost everyone here is from somewhere else," said Swann. "So the club becomes everything, which is not always healthy. There is an outlet in the home-state players to turn to mates or family, which we don't have here." While Pridham last addressed Sydney's issues with the commission two months ago, Shepherd said: "I've been whinging a lot but now we seriously need to address this. The expansion of the competition is an AFL initiative but now they need to follow their money. If I were them that's what I would be doing. "The four clubs are talking together now and we can't let this go. Our players talk to their mates in Melbourne and Adelaide and Perth and they are very aware of the sponsorship and marketing opportunities they are missing out on. "And it's not just players. The football expertise on and off the field comes from the heartland. I'm talking about doctors and conditioning staff and coaches. We have a terrific doctor but he has a background in rugby league not AFL. I've been whinging a lot but now we seriously need to address this. Tony Shepherd, GWS chairman

"And we have to pay significantly more than other clubs to bring them here and our players can't negotiate the advertising contracts and ambassadorial rates their counterparts are in Melbourne and Adelaide. "If we fell out of the eight we would risk some bad years and you look at the Gold Coast's plight at the moment and it's hurting the entire competition. It's damaging attendances and they are seriously struggling to keep players and the competition is going to continue to pillage their list." Shepherd said the AFL bowed to pressure from the traditional clubs to scrap COLA after Sydney recruited Lance Franklin on a lucrative long-term contract "partly because I think they wanted him to come to us". Brisbane's retention allowance was removed again due to pressure from the powerful Victorian bloc after the club had won successive flags and recruited Blake Caracella from Essendon. "But then the Lions languished outside the eight for years and they struggled to keep their players and staff," said Shepherd. Loading

The four clubs have a strong ally in the AFL Players' Association, whose boss Paul Marsh described the inequalities in the current system as "a conversation the industry has to have". "It's complex and maybe it's something we will work towards the next CBA but I'm putting it on the agenda. We're not taking this lightly." Marsh urged the competition not to view the move "as an anti-Victorian stance. But we have a system based on equalisation. We have a salary cap, a reverse order draft, a soft cap and we need to look at the areas of 'disequalisation'. "I'm not just talking about the four clubs in New South Wales and Queensland. We're talking about where the grand final is played and about the unfairness of the fixture where the West Australian teams and non-Victorian teams should be prioritised." Although the WA teams were allotted extra business-class seats for flights to and from their matches in the last collective bargaining agreement, Marsh pointed out strange fixturing decisions such as sending West Coast to country NSW for a pre-season game.