Pendlebury said he would be supportive of giving the media more access to players in line with the US press who can interview its country’s star athletes until just before match time as a way of giving the game more exposure.

The AFL has promised players a fair share of the game’s earnings, however, discussions have been dragging on.  

“I have no qualms about sitting down in the first quarter, not at all,” Pendlebury said in a new Collingwood podcast.

“You model yourself off what the best businesses in the world have done, and sporting leagues.

“The NBA has had two lockouts and played a 50-game season instead of an 82-game season to prove a point that, as players, we need to be more respected than what they felt they were.

“We listen to Marshy (AFL PA CEO Paul Marsh), we take his advice. If he comes to this football club, and he said ‘Scott, in order to get this deal moving, we need you to sit out the first quarter’, (then I would strike).

Pendlebury said the players would be asking for a set percentage with negotiations to intensify in coming weeks.

 “As the game grows, key stakeholders need to grow with it, so it’s something we are going to fight for,” Pendlebury said.

“I don’t think the players are going to blink, either. If the AFL is not going to blink, the players won’t blink.

 “They (fans) will be spewing (about a strike or sit-down) and rightly so.

“But they will understand when the media print the story and print all the facts, they will read about it and educate themselves and understand it’s all for a bigger product.

“And they (fans) will enjoy the game in the next season when the game is so much better when they get so much more player access.”