NOTED lateral thinker Kevin Sheedy has proposed exempting all indigenous players from the AFL salary cap.

Speaking at the launch of his latest book, Stand Your Ground, Sheedy was at his headline-grabbing best, floating the controversial idea and also revealing he considered running for the Essendon board before deciding on a return to Richmond.

Sheedy is working with the AFL this year to help with game development and on Wednesday he publicly floated the unlikely idea of exempting indigenous players from the salary cap.

He put the idea to the league as a way of helping with the likely expansion to 18 teams.

"Approximately in 2010, maybe we should just say `let's not have any indigenous players' contracts in the salary cap and see how many more indigenous players we could recruit and get into AFL clubs'," he said.

The publication of Sheedy's new book comes a year after the Bombers ended his 27-year reign as their coach. In it, he fires shots at several key Essendon figures, especially chief executive Peter Jackson, chairman Ray Horsburgh and board member Alec Epis.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Sheedy was set to return to the Tigers in a marketing and membership role.

Sheedy made his name as a triple-premiership player at Richmond in the 1960s and `70s before joining Essendon as their coach.

"Should I go and stand for the board? I really thought hard about that, but then I thought that might be putting your energies in the wrong direction," he said.

"I had an opportunity to go back to Richmond, a club that gave me a wonderful start in my footy career.

Sheedy also defended the controversial idea outlined in his book that the Bombers should have seriously considered swapping captain Matthew Lloyd for Chris Judd when he parted ways with West Coast.

Sheedy said he had informal contact with Judd's management before leaving Essendon midway through last season.

Judd joined Carlton for the 2008 season.

"If you wanted to get a Chris Judd, then you had to let somebody go that's very, very good," Sheedy said.

"The Bomber midfield needed a player and a leader like Judd.

"Obviously you won't get many better people than Matthew Lloyd, but the Bombers needed a player and a leader like Judd in the midfield.

"It's a tough decision, you either sit with it or you don't, or you'll never, ever know."