I can see controlling halves getting $1 million a year (remember The Chad wanted it after he won the GF with the Dopers), but not the heads-up five-eighths. The talk of Luai potentially leaving the Panthers because "desperate clubs will pay him a $million" but I haven't seen any news of an actual club proposing that kind of figure. It's much easier to find a livewire player to play #6 than it is to find even a semi-competent halfback.
And it's made worse because a proper halfback needs a lot more time to find their feet in first grade, and they are easily chewed up and spat out if they aren't world-beating in their first two years (eg, Walker). Clubs then have the choice of persevering with them while they are young in order for them to develop, effectively weakening the team for those earlier years, or having them develop in Q-Cup (and risk them having a tantrum and leaving for whatever promise of first-grade they can get), and even if a club does get the balance right, all the effort you put in can get you rewarded with them being poached by desperate clubs (or the Roosters) the moment they come good, for huge money.