A MID-SEASON trade period could be a reality as early as next season, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has revealed.

Key AFL officials and club list managers have been involved in a brainstorming session around the way club lists are shaped in the future.

Mid-season trading has been on the agenda in those talks and McLachlan said he believed it could be a workable solution for clubs whose prospects have otherwise been hurt by injuries.

"I think it’s got some merit," McLachlan told Fox Footy on Thursday.

"It’s real enough that the discussion is happening with the clubs.

"If it happened it would probably come in next year."

McLachlan said the way fans feel about mid-season trading would play a big part in whether the move proceeded.

"I think the cultural thing is a big thing to consider," he said.

"It’s really not any different to being traded at the end of the year, but in-season probably feels different and I think that cultural aspect is something that everyone is thinking about."

Other list management mechanisms discussed at the brainstorming session included short-term contracts, list sizes, free agency and compensation, trading players during the NAB AFL Draft and the need for a pre-season draft.

The AFL gathering, reported in The Australian on Thursday, was designed to facilitate discussion and hear club views on issues that have been raised over player movement and acquisition rather than to form immediate recommendations.

Participants were asked to consider some of the questions and put forward their ideas and potential consequences of changes.

AFL football operations boss Mark Evans told AFL.com.au the meeting was designed to consider how the game might look in five or 10 years time.

"The idea behind it was to bring people from within the AFL and from clubs together just to explore a whole range of things that could potentially assist clubs, the League and players in formulating a future draft, trading and free agency system," Evans said.

The AFL last had a mid-season draft in 1993 but it was a major talking point when AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan met with club coaches in 2014.

There are about 220 players on AFL lists this season yet to play a game for their clubs, with experienced players such as Melbourne's Jack Grimes, North Melbourne's Aaron Black and Lachie Hansen, St Kilda's Billy Longer and Western Bulldog Will Minson unable to break into their senior sides despite being available for selection.

The Sydney Swans could be one club interested in trading in a ruckman if a mid-season trade was to be held this season after Kurt Tippett was injured, while Collingwood's Travis Cloke would be an obvious candidate for a club in contention such as Hawthorn who might like a big key forward.

The AFL had already flagged the possibility of introducing a system where clubs offered short-term contracts for players from state leagues after Essendon was forced to do that when 12 of its players received season-long bans in January.

Free agency has been a major talking point, although few players have changed clubs under the system introduced in 2012 despite their eligibility.

The AFLPA is hoping to change the eligibility criteria to make it easier for players to qualify as free agents during this year's collective bargaining agreement.

Adelaide's recruiting manager Hamish Ogilvie told AFL.com.au's Road to the Draft podcast on Tuesday he had considered question of whether players could be traded on draft night.

He said the exchange of draft selections might be more practical with the Crows and Geelong exchanging picks in 2014, which allowed the Cats to get Nakia Cockatoo and the Crows to choose intended target Jake Lever and have an earlier pick in a later round.

"I struggle to get my head around how you would trade players on the night because of medicals and talking to the player and the club you are going to trade him to. That would be difficult," Ogilvie said.

"At this stage, without having spent a lot of time as a group working on it, I think it can only be picks. Whether we have enough picks in our game to make it a viable, exciting thing for TV I'm not sure. "

Giants veteran Steve Johnson is not a fan of the idea.

mid season trade - ridiculous idea. A solid list management strategy is one of the only competitive advantages a club can get these days! — steve johnson (@Steviejohnson20) June 23, 2016