The Swans requested the opportunity to present their case to the commissioners in writing earlier this month, with the meeting confirmed by Andrew Pridham on Monday night.

Earlier on Monday, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan had encouraged the club to accept the ban, while conceding the Swans had put forward a "strong and compelling" case that they had worked well within the rules when recruiting Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin in the last two years.

"We've had an ongoing dialogue with the Swans for some time, it's just been a very tough one," McLachlan said.

"There have to be some constraints. You can't have everyone."

Having agreed to a two-year phase out of the current cost of living allowance, Sydney was told shortly before this month's trade period that it was not permitted to trade any players into the club this year or next unless it was willing to bring about an instant end to the cost of living allowance.

The club, which lost free agent Nick Malceski to Gold Coast and youngsters Tim Membrey and Shane Biggs for next to nothing, was also unable to recruit any restricted or unrestricted free agents and told it could only trade players for draft picks.

A continuation of the ban could cause significant damage to the club's depth this time next year, with Adam Goodes, Rhyce Shaw and Ted Richards all nearing the end of their careers.

The Swans tried to change the league's mind before the ban became public more than halfway through the trade period, pointing out that it had never had any choice but to pay the cost of living allowance  into every player's contract. The AFL Players Association has made its displeasure known since, believing it should have been consulted.

Both Sydney and the AFL know exactly which players will receive what money this year and the next has been committed to, and the Swans have argued that they would not have been able to use the cost of living allowance  as a way of luring any free agents.

Sydney has also pointed out that in order to create enough salary cap space for Franklin's nine-year, $10 million dollar contract, the club had to lose five established senior players including retiring midfielder Jude Bolton and ruckman Shane Mumford.

The cost of living allowance will be replaced from 2017 by an AFL-controlled rent subsidy of $10,000 for players earning $300,000 or less.

Sydney chief executive Andrew Ireland told The Age earlier this month that cost of living allowance had been put in place by the AFL and that the club had never had a choice but to pay it.

"We're not happy about it, we don't understand it and we'll continue to talk to them about it. We think we're being penalised for complying with AFL rules," he said.

"We haven't broken any rules, we've complied with the AFL's rules and this is their rule. The only reason players have received the cost of living allowance is because the AFL has said we have to pay it.

"It wasn't optional. We argued for it and we believed we should have kept it, but in the end they put the rule in place and we had to comply."