Hypothetical time. Let's say Gaff decides he wants to be back home. If we match an offer and retain the rights to his services, what's to stop us putting it to him that we'll get him there, but we need to get a fair trade out of it, and that this will require him to readjust what he expects to earn over there?
Let's say the 'market rate' for Gaff is about 800-900k - as in, that's about what a team would happily pay him and trade with us for, as opposed to $1.2m where they would not be wanting to give up anything in return. We match the offer and he's our player at $1.2m. We say we'll work out a deal to send you to Melbourne tomorrow if you readjust your contract back to the market rate. If he wants to go back to Melbourne then he'll agree to a renegotiation, and we trade him for something like a pick around 10 and another late first.
The way I see it the worst case scenario is it turns into a game of chicken and if we run out of time ot do the deal we may have to pay some of his salary to get a 'fair' trade out of another club. But then even in the worst case the equation becomes something like:
Option 1 (Trade):
Lose Gaff and up to 300k/year of salary cap space, gain two first rounders.
Option 2 (FA):
Lose Gaff and get one late first round compo pick.
Option 1 seems to be the more balanced deal to me. I wouldn't blame Gaff/his management if they thought it was too hardball on our part, but the reality is being a restricted FA doesn't entitle him to have his cake and eat it too. Everyone settles for a fair deal.
I'm also assuming that the AFL won't let us manipulate the FA compo as they have with other clubs, which of course would allow us to get that two first a lot easier.