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SEASON SLASHED AFL cuts rounds to 17

PLAYERS have urged the AFL to reconsider its decision to shorten the season to 17 rounds to deal with the coronavirus crisis, pleading with the League to maintain a 22-game fixture.

AFL Players' Association chief executive Paul Marsh said a majority of men's and women's players wanted their respective seasons to continue if health experts advise it is safe to do so.

The issue of the men's players potentially taking a 20 per cent pay cut to cope with the expected massive financial losses the game will face hasn't been discussed, but the players haven't given up hope of playing a regular home and away, 22-game season.

"We believe we should be keeping the option open for a 22-week season," Marsh said on Tuesday.

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"Gill (AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan) and the AFL's view is that 17 (games) is the only realistic number that we can go for.

"All we're saying is we've got a 40-week window."

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Marsh said the players were prepared to cut short their holidays and change other requirements under the collective bargaining agreement to make that happen.

"Players will make sacrifices around scheduling and leave and everything else to try and give the industry a chance of surviving this, or getting through this," he said.

"That's what we're focused on at the moment.

"If this thing is over at a point where we can deliver that, why would we not want to deliver that?"

Marsh said there was some concern in the playing group about the potential risks of playing, but the majority wanted to play.

"We're hearing that a lot of people are going to get sick from this, so of course there was unease," he said.

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"At the end of it, players want to play as a collective.

"That doesn't mean that every player is in that situation."

Travelling on chartered flights and staying in isolated floors at hotels have been raised as ways to prevent the spread of the disease for travelling teams.

Marsh said the rapidly changing nature of the situation meant it might be close to the first bounce in Thursday night's season-opener between Richmond and Carlton at the MCG before a final decision on whether the game goes ahead is known.

"It's really difficult to know where this is going to go, this is changing so quickly," he said.

"Right now, our players are committed to playing.

"Whether or not that is able to happen, we'll know right up until the death knell, and that's the reality of what we're dealing with here."