THE AFL has called on its 16 clubs to help set up their new Gold Coast rival.
In a memo to all 16 club chiefs yesterday, AFL boss Andrew Demetriou revealed that the competition already has a model in mind for the new club but asked existing clubs to put forward their football expertise to determine the ground rules for the contentious 17th team list to be established within the coming months.
With every existing club certain to lose at least one uncontracted player to the Gold Coast by the end of the 2010, the AFL has said it would establish a sub-committee to form rules for the new team.
The group is to include recruiting managers, football managers and chief executives from the clubs and will meet for the first time on April 25.
After a series of moves, The Age has learned:
■ AFL bosses met the Gold Coast bid committee in Queensland for a long series of talks on Tuesday night.
■ AFL football boss Adrian Anderson will lead a deputation to all 16 clubs over the coming weeks to put forward the league's plans for the 17th list.
■ All clubs must nominate representatives for the new list-management team by April 11.
■ The clubs have suggested that the new team be given access to all available draft choices from Queensland and the Northern Territory in establishing the Gold Coast team.
■ The new team will almost certainly make its debut "off-Broadway" in 2009, probably in the AFL Queensland competition but potentially in the VFL.
Three clubs contacted by The Age last night — Brisbane Lions, Collingwood and Geelong — all indicated that they would be putting forward senior staff to join the new sub-committee.
Lions chief executive Michael Bowers said his club would nominate its football and recruiting veteran Graeme Allan, adding that Brisbane would happily put forward Bowers as well in the belief that the club strongly required representation.
"We are particularly keen to get our football and recruiting manager Gubby Allan on board," said Bowers. "He will be our lead nomination. We're very keen to get involved as heavily as possible and we obviously want to be represented." Geelong Chief executive Brian Cook said his club would put forward recruiting manager Stephen Wells and football manager Neil Balme.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said the Magpies would also be pushing for representation.
AFL football boss Anderson, along with another AFL executive Andrew Dillon, will begin visiting the 16 clubs next week to put forward the league's plans regarding the creation of the new list. The league still believes the team will make its AFL debut in 2011.
According to yesterday's memo, the league's two priorities will ensure that the new team proves competitive from the outset, but that its establishment will not hurt the existing 16 clubs.
With the club meetings to be completed by the end of the month and the new AFL list-establishment committee to meet in a matter of
weeks, the AFL executives have clearly started to move towards a tangible result.
While the Gold Coast bid committee, consisting of former Brisbane chairman Graeme Downie, local community leader John Witheriff and Southport's Alan McKenzie has been regularly meeting AFL bosses, there was a suggestion last week that the Gold Coast-based team was concerned about a lack of progress.
Downie told ABC Radio last Friday night that the AFL had not conducted official market research in the establishment of a new team and while the round two Lions-Collingwood clash attracted a big crowd at the Gabba, the game was thumped in TV terms by the rugby league derby between the Broncos and the Cowboys, something of a dampener for the AFL.
However, Downie's Gold Coast team and the AFL have both insisted that their push is moving strongly forward with Demetriou and the AFL Commission steadfast in its belief that weekly games played in Queensland will continue to lift attendances, television ratings and junior development in the state.
The decisions made over the coming months will see the same model adopted for the creation of an 18th team in Sydney's west should no existing AFL club or clubs agree to relocate or merge.
Last Modified on 27/11/2008 10:34