Now the gloves are off. Now the AFL - having thought it was dancing rings around the players' union reps and bloodying their nose with the occasional flurry of jabs - realises it's got a fight on its hands.

The AFLPA has shown it's not going to roll over on the issue of a better pay deal for its members; it's not going to be cowed by Andrew Demetriou's overbearing tactics and travelling roadshow where he's tried to charm the 17 clubs around to the AFL's point of view.

What the union has effectively said today, in rebutting the AFL's offer of a five-year, $1.144 billion deal, is: we're sick of being taken for granted, we've made a significant concession by dropping our demand for a set percentage of the AFL's revenue, and we're not going to give up any more ground. We're going to stand up and fight.

With professional sport in the US dominated in recent times by talk of lockouts - specifically with football and basketball, where players have been at war with franchise owners - it is clear that the AFL players' delegates have been caught up in that revolutionary spirit.

Gone are the days when the players were a fragmented group who had no sense of solidarity or strength when taking on the might of the AFL and its team of powerhouse lawyers and spin doctors.

Now they're looking Demetriou and the rest of the Commission in the eye and saying: we're not going to accept a deal we think is unfair.

And this negotiation, which began early in the year and has dragged on way past the original deadline, now shows no sign of being resolved. Both parties seem entrenched behind their positions and increasingly reluctant to budge.

At his media conference today, Demetriou said the AFL had made its final offer, meaning the brinkmanship is likely to continue for weeks yet.

The AFL want the new $1.144 billion deal to stretch across five years; the AFLPA is pushing for three years.

And the union want pay increases of six, six and seven per cent over the three years of the deal rather than the 11, five and three offered by the AFL.

The union believes that reviewing players' wages again at the end of 2014 - as opposed to 2016 when the league would prefer to broker the next deal - is a reasonable concession in exchange for dropping their insistence about earning a set percentage.

The AFL said it was shocked the players "utterly rejected" its pay offer of $1.144 billion over five years, lodged a fortnight ago.

The players dropped their demand for a fixed percentage of the game's revenue, contingent on the deal being for three years instead of five.

AFLPA boss Matt Finnis rejected the AFL's claims the association was asking for a larger slice of the pie. "The players are not asking for more money. They are simply seeking to negotiate an agreement within the scope of what's been offered," he said at a press conference this afternoon.

He said three-year agreements were standard across all sectors of the economy. "The need for a shorter agreement is even greater in this industry where players have very short careers compared to other workers.

"In the interests of providing certainty for clubs and the game, players have moved a long way to accommodate to the concerns of the AFL."

It has been interesting to note the apparent change in public opinion as this dispute has dragged on. At the outset, the supporters' reaction was largely one of opposition to the players for their 'greedy' claims - at least, if talkback radio and online forums were any guide.

But more recently, support appears to have grown for the quietly spoken Finnis and the diplomatic way he's conducted the negotiations. Certainly, the players are united in their support of him - and several, such as Richmond's Daniel Jackson, have felt bold enough to openly challenge Demetriou about his claims.

So now we wait to see who blinks first. As with any dispute, neither side will want to be seen to be surrendering any ground - although Finnis or Demetriou will have to swallow their pride soon enough. Or else the American experience of labor disputes and lockouts might become an unwelcome part of the Australian sporting landscape.

-- with AAP