AFL’s 2012 vision still blurry

The AFL insist their intent is deliberate and aggressive, but the devil will be in the detail as they talk up their expansion strategy.

Two days after AFL commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick flagged the possibility of an 18-team competition as early as 2012, his chief executive Andrew Demetriou stressed an “enormous” amount of work needed to be done.

The commission had their first meeting of the year on Monday morning and Demetriou said they had handed the AFL executive an “aggressive timeframe” for setting up a team in western Sydney.

The league are already committed to a Gold Coast team by 2011.

“The executive and management of the AFL have been set a target by the commission to endeavour to reach - whether it’s 2011, -12, -13,” Demetriou said.

Fitzpatrick’s comments have sparked some spirited discussion in NSW about the wisdom of a second AFL side setting up in that state sooner, rather than later.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has also criticised the league’s eagerness to expand the competition within four or five years.

Demetriou pointed to the league’s next-generation strategy and said the only change from the league’s previous position on expansion was when it might happen.

But he conceded much work remained to be done and that the AFL must win over the 16 clubs.

“It’s not a bluff or not a scare tactic - the fact of the matter is, we’re deadly-serious about expanding our competition,” Demetriou said.

“We will need to demonstrate to our clubs that whatever we decide to do with the expansion of our competition, that it has minimal impact (on them).

“I, for one, am sure we’ll be able to demonstrate that for some of our clubs who are struggling, there are huge benefits in having additional teams in the competition.

“There wasn’t much new in what Mike said over the weekend, other than a more aggressive agenda for western Sydney and bringing it forward to 2012.”

Demetriou even went as far as suggesting the new Sydney club might not join the competition in `12.

“You shouldn’t think 2012 is when we actually put a team into western Sydney - it may be we decide on a licence or a licence-holder and we give them a proper lead-in time to have a team,” he said.

An obvious issue will be how the two new clubs source their players.

Demetriou spoke in broad terms about using the AFL’s “talent pathways” to help the two clubs build their lists, while conceding some existing players would go to the newcomers.

“You shouldn’t assume that they’ll be set up from players from existing clubs only,” he said.

“We’ve got some plans around some of our pathways and our players who are coming through the system, the 16s to 17s.

“We will need to demonstrate to the clubs that it’s going to have as minimal impact as possible on their playing lists, because that is obviously a concern for them and I think it’s a legitimate concern.”

Demetriou said not expanding into the two regions was a bigger risk than going ahead with the idea.

“Is is still a long haul? Absolutely,” he said.

“Do we wait and wait and wait? I don’t think we can wait, I don’t think we can afford to wait.

“The consequences of waiting are far greater than if we don’t.

“If you really want to be a national competition with a national footprint, you need to be in those two markets.”

He insisted the AFL had learnt from the growing pains suffered by previous expansion clubs, especially Brisbane.

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