ESSENDON players will refuse to run out with “top-up” players during the NAB Challenge — and are prepared to be fined to sit out the pre-season competition.

Bombers players on Monday night reaffirmed their desire at all costs to protect the identity of 18 teammates serving provisional suspensions for doping.

A series of meetings between the AFL and Essendon in recent days has failed to broker a solution to the NAB Challenge dilemma. Talks will resume on Tuesday.

One proposal put to the club involves all players from Essendon’s 2012 list still at the club sitting out the NAB Challenge.

The suggestion is aimed at alleviating the playing group’s concerns at protecting the anonymity of the 18 players issued with infraction notices by the AFL last November.

Eight players from 2012 still at the club did not take part in the drugs program.

But a senior club source told the Herald Sun the proposal to top up with as many as 15 non-AFL players was “ludicrous”.

The source said the players were adamant they would not play matches alongside second-tier players from leagues such as the VFL, WAFL and SANFL.

It is believed the AFL Players’ Association has also asked Essendon about the severity of penalties the AFL could hand down if all Bombers players chose to boycott.

The players have been told the club would likely be fined heavily for failing to field a team.

The AFL is sympathetic to the plight of the 18 players before the league’s anti-doping tribunal but wants Essendon involved in the NAB Challenge with the use of other players.

Essendon has vowed to honour its community commitments in the Morwell area if the decision is made to abandon its March 7 match against St Kilda.

Western Bulldogs forward Stewart Crameri and Port Adelaide pair Paddy Ryder and Angus Monfries — Bombers players in 2012 — are also expected to sit out the NAB Challenge. A total of 34 players, many no longer in the AFL, are accused of using the banned peptide thymosin beta-4.

Fox Footy is broadcasting a number of NAB Challenge games but not all — making it possible for Essendon to pull out without breaching the league’s lucrative TV deal.

The Herald Sun revealed last week that full Bombers list had vowed not to take part in the pre-season competition unless the accused players could be guaranteed potential sanctions would be backdated to late last year.