THE escalating war between Channel Seven and AFL players could be defused today when Seven's Melbourne boss Ian Johnson holds crisis talks with the network's legal advisers over the station's decision to reveal drug use at a Melbourne-based AFL club.

As footballers around the country yesterday began black-banning Channel Seven, Johnson phoned the head of the AFL Players Association, Brendon Gale, to discuss how the impasse could be ended.

While Johnson denied his network would be apologising for its decision to air the controversial report last Friday night he indicated the network planned to release a conciliatory statement on the issue early today.

"We all want to resolve the situation. I've spoken to Andrew Demetriou and I've spoken Brendon Gale and we are keen to have this resolved," Johnson told The Age last night.

The Victorian Supreme Court will hear a case tomorrow in which Channel Seven is appealing an injunction that has prevented the naming of the players and their club. Channel Seven, last Friday night, named the club and read excerpts from the medical records on air but did not name the players involved.

"We have until the court hearing to come up with some resolution and we may be able to resolve that without too much fuss," Johnson said. "I hate that this has become an issue in AFL football."

Gale refused to detail last night what the players would accept by way of an olive branch.

"In the next 48 hours we will continue discussions with the players with a view to forming a collective approach," he told The Age.

The AFL and its players have been outraged by the network's decision to broadcast the drug allegations and reveal players' personal medical details.

"I sympathise with what they (the players) are doing because they have had a gutful," Demetriou told The Age last night.

"We are at a very interesting fork in the road at the moment. People have blues with journalists and players and they're OK. People forget pretty quickly (and) so they should — it's only football. But this one is different."

Collingwood's entire playing group yesterday formalised an indefinite boycott of Channel Seven. On Monday, Magpie Nick Maxwell, an executive member of the AFLPA told The Age that his peers were "filthy" about the network's story. Captain Nathan Buckley yesterday declined to film an interview that would have been aired in Friday night's broadcast of the Magpies' round-22 clash with Adelaide.

In Adelaide, Crow Brett Burton, the vice-president of the AFLPA, refused to answer questions put to him by a Channel Seven journalist in a press conference that was held before his 150th match.

No Collingwood or Adelaide players will agree to be interviewed by Seven during Friday night's telecast, though the Crows' skipper, Mark Ricciuto, has a contract with Channel Seven that obliges him to talk.

Magpies' chief executive Gary Pert said the players had full support from the club "in whatever action they choose to take against Channel Seven".

Coaches Neil Craig and Mick Malthouse will also co-operate with the broadcaster.

The Western Bulldogs playing group also decided yesterday that, for the next week, they would give no interviews to Seven either in the lead-up to, or in the broadcast of, their match with the Kangaroos on Sunday.

"It was unanimous in our playing group," Bulldog Robert Murphy said last night.

The Kangaroos' Drew Petrie, another AFLPA delegate, said that the Brownlow Medal count, which will this year be televised by Channel Seven, could be boycotted by players.

Scoffing at the notion that the current breakdown in relations would effect Seven's on-going TV rights deal with the AFL, which runs until 2011, Johnson said of the Brownlow night boycott: "That would be to their detriment. It's their night."

The AFL removed Channel Seven journalist Dylan Howard, who broke the story last Friday, from its national data base, which means he would have no notification of AFL press releases or media events.

In an interview during Seven's round-21 Friday night game Howard said that the AFL was supporting Channel Seven's decision to run the story.