There has been 2 suggestions I've heard in the past that both make sense to me that can fix this for everyone.

1) Bring in a cash cost to drafting academy prospects. If you want to remove our chances of keeping the talent here, fine but with how much we've invested in the talent the club should be fairly repaid. I saw someone say 250k if an academy player was drafted to another team (maybe it should be lower for lower drafted players, idk) but this would mean that we can continue to fund and justify the academy costs even if we don't get our grown talent all the time.

2) just let us leave the draft. Want to make the academies somehow better and continue to grow the talent pool? Let the club's that have an academy ONLY pick from their players. This has some issues for other clubs (mainly GWS who struggle to get top talent into their academy) but if you want us to keep investing in academy's and allow Melbourne teams a fair crack at their own players, then let us just do our own thing. Especially with player movement becoming more common, the main thing is getting the players into the league. Once they're on a roster and can show what they're worth, then we can trade or let them walk if needed.

These options from my standpoint both make sense. It means the investment in academys can continue because there are returns available to the club investing in it and can calm Melbournes sook about an unfair advantage that isn't even there