Melbourne's all-male Carbine Club will vote on membership for at least five high-profile women in a desperate attempt to appease the AFL and keep its marquee Brownlow Medal lunch during grand final week.

In a week in which attitudes towards women have dominated AFL headlines, The Age has learned that five high-profile women - Olympians Nicole Livingstone and Alisa Camplin, Richmond Football Club president Peggy O'Neal, The Age's chief football writer Caroline Wilson and newly appointed AFL Commissioner Gabrielle Trainor - have been approached to join the invitation-only Carbine Club, which has an exclusive membership of about 80 men.

Last year, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan threatened to end a 52-year-old tradition when he refused to attend the Carbine Club's post-Brownlow Medal lunch at Crown. The AFL boss said the club, which was founded in Victoria in 1961 and named in honour of the 1890 Melbourne Cup winner, was at "cross-purposes" with his role as a "male champion of change" in the code.

A snub was averted after crisis talks between AFL executives and senior club members, the result of which was the Carbine Club gave an undertaking it would admit women members at some stage this year.

The Age believes the group pushing to admit female members includes former Collingwood premiership player Craig Kelly, high profile sports manager James Henderson and former Essendon chairman David Evans.

While the move to propose the five female members has "great support", The Age has also been told their admission "is not over the line".

"There will probably be a secret ballot and there has been a lot of push back from some of the older members," The Age was told. "I am not certain all five will be voted in."

There has also been a suggestion that some members will try to  delay the admission of women until Christmas – which would keep the club's promise to the AFL to admit female members this year, but also ensure the 2016 Brownlow lunch remains an all-male affair.

Any such move is certain to anger the AFL, which would in return refuse to allow the Brownlow medallist to attend the  lunch. The AFL has endured a tough week, with the announcement of its inaugural women's competition tarnished by offensive comments about holding football journalist Caroline Wilson under water made by club presidents Eddie McGuire and James Brayshaw on radio station Triple M.

The subject of female membership was broached at the Carbine's Club's annual meeting at Crown in May, and exposed strong divisions within the membership base.

A group of younger members threatened to quit unless the club embraces female membership. "It's time for some of these dinosaurs to move with the times, or we are going to lose our association with the AFL and lose a large group of members" The Age was told in May.

May's meeting coincided with Britain's Muirfield Golf Club losing the right to host the British Open due to its men-only policy. "That was a wake-up call for many [Carbine Club members]," The Age was told.

The Carbine Club was established to celebrate "sporting endeavour" as well as "bravery and courage". It's understood advances to prospective female members were happening as early as last November.

Livingstone would not say whether she had already been invited, but told Fairfax on Friday: "I would be interested in joining the Carbine Club because I believe the work they do for assisting athletes in need is highly valuable."

Asked if she would have any reservations about joining a club that has been exclusively male, and heavily criticised as "dinosaur age" in some quarters, Livingstone said with a laugh: "I've always worked in a world where men appear to rule the roost!"

Wilson's father, former Richmond president Ian Wilson, is a long-standing member of the Carbine Club. Asked if she had been invited to join, Wilson responded: "I'm sorry, but no comment on this one".

Carbine Club members include football legend Ron Barassi, America's Cup winning skipper John Bertrand and Herald & Weekly Times managing editor Peter Blunden.