Geelong chief Brian Cook says AFL will need to spend at least $200m to keep expansion clubs alive

OVERLOOKED twice for the AFL top job, Geelong chief Brian Cook says the league will need to pump more money than initially forecast to keep expansion clubs Gold Coast and GWS alive.

Geelong chied executive Brian Cook outside Simonds Stadium.

GEELONG chief executive Brian Cook has revealed he would have done things differently if he was made AFL boss, saying the league was in good shape but it should be “great”.

Cook was overlooked twice for the top job in favour of Andrew Demetriou and Gillon McLachlan, describing the latter’s appointment in 2014 as a “fait accompli”.

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“At a high level I would have been really strong on getting all the major stakeholders to agree to a common purpose and common values and identify what is our competitive advantage over other sports and really work on it,” Cook told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“I think if the AFL had done that over the past 20 years in a really meaningful way, they wouldn’t be simply a very good organisation, which they are, they would be a great organisation. I get criticised when I say that but I stick to it.”

Cook said the AFL wouldn’t let Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney die on the vine, but forecast a far greater hit to the league’s hip pocket to keep the expansion clubs alive.

“It’s going to cost the AFL a lot more money than first expected. The original expectation over a five-year period was to provide about $100 million to each of them. I think the $20-odd million they currently get will go for at least another 10 years,” he said.

Geelong chief Brian Cook twice missed out on the AFL CEO’s position. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“But the television rights have gone up dramatically and it can be argued that the ninth game gives us extra money that goes to those two club, and that’s not a bad argument.

“I wouldn’t have brought them in within a year of each other. I would have had a larger time difference between both. Having said that, the AFL bit the bullet, as they have with the AFLW, which I take my hat off to.”

Cook, who will walk away from the game after 2020, said a Melbourne-based team would never relocate despite declaring 18 teams “not ideal”.

“You will never get to a stage where there are less Melbourne-based clubs. There’s no way one of the Melbourne-based clubs will put its hand up,” he said.

“The AFL, under the system of equity, will ensure that clubs survive.”

**For Brian Cook’s most revealing interview in his time in the AFL get tomorrow’s Sunday Herald Sun**

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