AFL FOOTBALL operations manager Adrian Anderson says it was vital the AFL Players' Association agreed to a five-year collective bargaining agreement with the League.

A deal that will run from 2012 to 2016, albeit with a mandatory review after the third year, was signed off on Thursday afternoon at the Victorian coastal town of Lorne.

It ended more than 18 months of negotiations between the AFL and the players' union.

"We've just been working hard on things that have been sticking points, and trying to come up with solutions," Anderson told AFL.com.au.

"One of them has been getting to a five-year deal. That's been really important for us.

"That's occupied a lot of time recently. There's a genuine review at the half-way point, but there's the certainty that we wanted for the five-year deal.

"That's been one of the key sticking points. We've been working through all of those over the last few weeks."

League chief executive Andrew Demetriou was keen to stress that the negotiations never reached a complete stalemate.

"We kept the dialogue going, despite the time of the year," he said.

"I think everyone thinks it was very important to try and get this finished before the end of this [year] to provide certainty.

"The players want to play football, and our clubs want to get on with managing their businesses and setting their budgets.

"We want to get on and sort of get out of the way really. I don't think the players want to keep meeting with the AFL.

"I think there was just goodwill to get it finalised."

Solving the financial issues bedevilling a number of clubs shapes as the key issue for the AFL executive now that its negotiations with the players have concluded.

"In many aspects the game is in very good shape," Demetriou said. "I think what we're seeing on the park is first class, and I think our supporters agree with that.

"From a financial perspective, overall the code is healthy but we do have some challenges.

"We're certainly aware that this year we'll probably have nine clubs post losses. Hopefully that will be arrested going forward.

"With some of the plans we've put in place through our club distribution policy we can try and address that.

"And we've had the support of the players' association through that. That's more about equalisation.

"We've got plenty of competition from other codes, so there are lots and lots of challenges."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs