Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire believes there is a “consortium” already in place looking to make Perth home to a potential 20th AFL team.
With a final decision on Tasmania as the 19th licence expected in the coming days, McGuire said the next step would be to take the competition out to 20 teams – but where?
Perth is already home to two clubs in the West Coast Eagles (introduced in 1987) and Fremantle Dockers (introduced in 1995).
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While both clubs are struggling on the field in 2023, the Eagles are arguably the wealthiest club in the competition – and were even named the most profitable sports club in Australia back in 2018.
Earlier this year it was revealed the Eagles posted a $3.46m profit in 2022 – despite a disastrous two-win season.
Speaking on 3AW, McGuire said the AFL needed to embrace the Australian-wide aspect of the competition.
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“They are going to get to 20 – once they get to 19, they’ve got to get to 20,” he said.
“We may as well – let’s not have byes. Let’s get that extra round of football in.
“There is a consortium that wants to put a third one into Perth – and because they’ve got the stadium over there, they want to keep that rolling through.
“Will that impact on the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle at the moment when they are sort of at the bottom of the ladder? No time is the perfect time.”
McGuire said while he’d love to see a team based in the Northern Territory, he understood that wasn’t an option given it is “in complete disarray socially at the moment”.
The former Pies president said the AFL needed to think financially when scheduling teams at venues.
“I’d love to see your team (speaking to co-host Jimmy Bartel about GWS) play 11 games in western Sydney and 11 games in Canberra. There’s no need for you to come to Melbourne,” he said.
“That way we would end up with by let’s call it 2030, we could end up with the Gold Coast playing in the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland and Alice Springs – there’s no point them coming to Melbourne to play Collingwood or Carlton – it’s a loss maker.
“Let’s make these teams (GWS and the Gold Coast) what they were invented for and that is to build the competition.
“They’ll get (to the MCG) if they get to finals and things – don’t worry about that.
“If we do that, then we would have Western Australia and you could have three teams in Western Australia and I was keen on North Melbourne playing 11 in Tassie and 11 up here (in Melbourne), but we’ll have our own team in Tassie. We’ll have Tassie, South Australia, Western Australia, if we get you guys (GWS) meaningfully into Canberra for the first time for 11 home games – tick. Western Sydney, 11 home games, that’s all you get anyway.
“We have to pour resources up into Queensland at the moment because NRL are throwing everything at it – that’s the growth area.
“There’s nothing coming out of Tassie except good will – tick. But there’s no growth or money coming from out there.”
