Don't quite follow you, TC. Are you saying the rookie salary is outside the TPP (cap)?
My understanding that at least a portion (I believe the minimum wage) is outside the total player payments for a club, but struggling to find anything to back it up.
There is this mention in an article by Call Twomey:
"Losing the rookie list and extending the senior list to make it one entity would require a salary cap boost, which is expected to come via the next broadcast rights deal (to start in 2017). At the moment, there are varying and complex rules relating to how much of a rookie's salary goes into the total player payments, if at all."
http://www.nmfc.com.au/news/2015-04-21/afl-rookie-list-debate
Some people on Bigfooty, who I won't claim to be verifiable also have this to say, which does agree with the potentially complicated nature of Rookie Payments and the TPP.
All payments to players ... are included in the salary cap. I think the only exception is half of any amount paid to a veteran is outside the cap, and the base rookie wage (excl AFL match payments) is also outside the cap.
Match payments to rookies who are replacing injured players are excluded as well from memory.
Oh wait! I found it in the collective bargaining agreement:
Clause 10. Total Player Payments
"In calculation of the Total Player Payments for each AFL Club, the following payments will not be taken into account:"
(iii) the Football Payments made to a Rookie temporarily promoted to the Primary List of an AFL Club to replace a Player transferred to the Long Term Injury List;
(ix) Football Payments to Rookie Players except to the extent that this Agreement provides otherwise;
And it only gets more complex from there. But yes, in a drawn out answer, some of a Rookie's wage at least is outside the cap.