Outgoing star Mark Gasnier says NRL players deserve a bigger cut of the money generated by the game - even the profits from footy cards sold in potato chip packets.

The departing St George Illawarra captain stressed his move to French rugby was not about money, rather about his contract not being fully honoured as he was owed third-party sponsorship payments.

But he took time in his press conference to urge the NRL to explore other avenues of income to stem the flow of players heading overseas.

"Do I think they get what they're entitled too? Maybe not," Gasnier said of NRL players.

"Before you jump and say the boys are greedy, we're very, very happy with what we earn and very grateful and everything like that.

"But is it fair when it comes to stuff like footy cards?

"Like, I'm happy to say you know them (sic) Tazo cards for instance, I would love to know their sales, but we get $1000. Is that fair?

"...I'm just saying little things and this isn't out of greed, and it's important you guys don't take it out of context because all I'm saying is little things like that could help."

Gasnier said the NRL shouldn't categorise all players in the same category in terms of their potential earnings.

"For instance Darren Lockyer, he's on a pedestal and he deserves to be," Gasnier said.

"You're going to sell a lot more Darren Lockyer Queensland jerseys than what you are a Darius Boyd one, and no disrespect to Darius Boyd ... but those established stars, do you think it's fair that Darius Boyd is the same as Darren Lockyer?

"I just think it's an area that could be looked at. And we're definitely not hard done by, but why can't we make (a fair) comparison to what the games makes?"

It is believed a collapsed deal with Channel Nine is the reason Gasnier's contract has not been honoured.

NRL boss David Gallop said the situation highlighted the reality that sponsors were tied up with supporting clubs and did not have the money to throw at individual players.

"There aren't necessarily lots of sponsorship dollars out there to back individual players and Mark's situation actually demonstrates that," Gallop said.

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