AFL players won't strike says union
The prospect of a players' strike in pursuit of their wage claim has been dismissed by the AFL Players Association.
AFLPA chief executive Matt Finnis said talk of stop-work action would be "drawing a long bow."
"It's not something that we spend a lot of time thinking about," Finnis said.
"Players have relatively short careers so if you're going to ask players to stand down and not play, you're putting at jeopardy not only their loyalty to the fans ... but also their careers."
Talks between the AFL and the AFLPA over a pay deal covering the next five seasons have stalled, meaning the original deadline of June 30 is unlikely to be met.
Strike action is a regular occurrence in American professional sports but Finnis said the AFL operated in a different climate.
"One of the things you see overseas is negotiations with privately-owned teams," he said.
"AFL players are very loyal to their clubs and they understand that their clubs are actually owned by the fans."
Finnis said the AFLPA had been talking to leadership groups at all clubs over the players' demands for a bigger slice of overall revenue and they were "pretty strong in their resolve."
"Their direction is we provide a spirited representation of their peers and our members," he told Radio SEN on Thursday.
"The guys have got a strong agenda and that's to clearly establish AFL football as the No.1 sporting career in this country and they don't apologise for that.
"All we're trying to do is have a performance-based pay raise whereby if the game grows the players who help to grow the game should share in the upside."
Hawthorn captain Luke Hodge also said the players were not interested in going on strike.
"The only people saying `strike' are the media - I don't think I've heard a player come out and say it yet," Hodge said.
"It's the furthest thing from anyone's mind, so we'll catch up next month and have a chat, throw a few questions around."
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