Sydney coach Paul Roos has challenged the AFL to reveal the identity of any players who have already signed with the fledgling Gold Coast club.

Roos, who is in the final year of his tenure with the Swans, has already gone on record as saying he would tell any of his players who has signed with the Gold Coast to "go now".

The 17th AFL club appears to have capitalised on a loophole which allows them to sign players a full year before their competition debut.

Roos argues that the loophole is unnecessary and that the current system works, as evidenced by former Swans Darren Jolly and Amon Buchanan signing with other clubs during the last trade week.

The Sydney coach stressed the AFL didn't want to go down the same road as the NRL and A-League, who have also had well publicised problems with player movements.

He could also have thrown in the fourth major football code, rugby union, which is currently embroiled in a dispute over a newly instituted signings window for Australian Super 14 players.

"If the AFL and the AFL Players Association are saying it's in the rules and there's nothing wrong with it, just come out and tell us who the players are," Roos told reporters, referring to the alleged Gold Coast player signings.

"If they are ashamed of it and if you want to hide behind it then obviously they think there's something wrong with it as well.

"You only have to look at the A-League and how their own people have ridiculed the reputation of that competition over the last two or three weeks.

"We have been fortunate that we haven't had to deal with that situation, but it's clearly become a bit unfortunate for rugby league people and obviously in recent times for the A-League."

Roos admitted to being surprised by the signing loop hole and noted a lot of other clubs were caught similarly off guard.

"I think the argument from the Players' Association is reasonably flimsy," Roos said.

"The fact that you are not in the competition and not playing against them ... the reality is they (Gold Coast) are a team. They might not be playing this year, but they are playing next year.

"From speaking to some rugby league people as I do, their system as it is, I know a lot of rugby league people don't like their system and see it as a real problem.

"Thankfully for us we haven't had that system in place."

With the neighbouring Greater Western Sydney franchise starting up, Roos conceded the loophole could cause ongoing problems if it wasn't closed.

"Maybe it's a case of talking to your players and saying `if you want to sign for GWS, we will let you out of your contract 12 months early and you can go train with them'," Roos said.

The Swans have named seven newcomers as well as many of their star players for their NAB Cup opener against Carlton at Blacktown Olympic Park on Saturday.

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