At an AFLPA board meeting on Monday, players suggested it would be more helpful to restrict the days in which players train leading into Christmas to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Players believe the required fitness could be achieved through high intensity training on those days allowing them to engage in activity outside of football on their days off.
AFL players undertake a long pre-season by the standards of world sport and would like the break between the end of the season and the resumption of training to be extended to allow greater flexibility for personal and professional development.
They believe accommodation can be made for those in rehabilitation, players at different stages of their career and clubs returning to training at different times while still achieving the intent of providing a more balanced life.
Players also want parameters to be placed around clubs to ensure subtle pressure is not applied to return from their break early or send GPS results back to clubs.
The proposal to be made by players was developed after feedback was gained from all clubs and extensive consultation.
The meeting also updated the players on the progress of consultation between all parts of the industry, including the AFL and clubs.
A working party, led by AFL Football Operations boss Mark Evans and including current players Jobe Watson and Daniel Jackson, met three weeks ago and discussed how a pre-season training program could be better structured.
Nine clubs were represented on the working party, with representatives including Watson and Jackson; high performance managers Andrew Russell (Hawthorn), Bill Davoren (St Kilda) and Darren Burgess (Port Adelaide); AFLPA representative Ian Prendergast; and club CEOs and football managers.
At that meeting sports scientists and conditioning experts indicated that 11 or 12 weeks of pre-season training (or a certain number of training units) was required to achieve the level of fitness required.
Many believe a staggered start to the season might be appropriate and many clubs are of the view that any system would operate better if any division of players based on their experience were restricted to two groups.
A memo was then sent to all clubs seeking feedback on how best to structure the pre-season. They are expected to provide feedback next week.
The players remain optimistic that changes can be introduced for the upcoming pre-season while still allowing pre-existing arrangements (such as overseas training camps) to be fulfilled.
Introducing guidelines is considered an important structural underpinning to efforts to increase players' prospect of having a balanced lifestyle.
Club CEOs were presented with a paper last month that indicated what was required to create a first class sporting workplace.
The captains put the issue on the agenda during their pre-season meeting with the AFL Commission, leading to a player wellbeing summit held in January.
AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou has since championed the issue and made it clear to all in the football industry that player work-life balance is being treated seriously.
