A radical proposal to short-circuit pay negotiations with the AFL Players Association by putting an offer directly to the footballers to vote on has been placed before league bosses by Melbourne president and prominent industrial lawyer Glen Bartlett.

Bartlett has warned AFL chairman Richard Goyder and CEO Gillon McLachlan they are trapped on a "wheel of death" – an industrial relations term for negotiations that endured for months and potentially years with no evident resolution in sight.

The Bartlett proposal, first suggested at the meeting of club presidents and the commission in March, would create a circuit-breaker for collective bargaining agreement negotiations between the AFL and the players.

The AFL would shut out the players' union and go direct to the 800 or so players should no resolution be reached at a deadline set by both parties.