THE BALL is in the AFL's court if CBA negotiations are to come to a conclusion quickly, the head of the AFL Players Association, Paul Marsh, says.

Marsh told News Corp the AFLPA wanted to return to the negotiating table as quickly as possible, with the CBA its major priority, however scheduled talks in November were called off after the players presented a counter-claim to the AFL.

The AFLPA said it was waiting for a response from the AFL.

"There is no bigger priority for the AFLPA at the moment than the collective bargaining agreement and, in our view, the way forward is to sit at the negotiating table with the AFL and keep going until we get the deal done," Marsh said.

"The ball is in their court."

Clubs have become frustrated that the pay negotiations are ongoing because of the difficulties it has created in managing total player payments, but they have backed the AFL's position.

Essendon football manager Rob Kerr told a media briefing last week the uncertainty was not ideal given clubs planned five years ahead.

The players are demanding a fixed percentage of the game's revenue while the AFL is determined not to tie salary to revenues.

Marsh told SEN on Thursday that from the AFLPA's perspective it was about aligning the interests of the game and players.

"The model at the moment is not a model where the interests of the players and the game is actually aligned," Marsh said.

"There is no incentive for the players to help drive more revenue for the competition because at the moment they are missing out on that extra money that they drive."

However he would not specify beyond extending media access to how players could drive revenue.

Gambling revenue and government grants have been removed from the revenue pool, but the AFLPA's basic stance is that if the players are connected at all to revenue generation they deserve a share of the spoils.

Clubs and the AFL are concerned that many activities make little profit despite generating revenue, while the AFLPA believes the AFL is putting money away for a rainy day.

In the interim, clubs have been working on the basis of a 10 per cent increase in TPP for 2017 with no increase in additional service agreements.

Some in the industry are concerned the pre-season series may be affected if talks are not resolved in the first two months, with the draw yet to be publicly revealed.