Third West Australian team is news to Eagles

WEST Coast says the prospect of a third AFL team in WA would need a "great deal of research" after League chief executive Andrew Demetriou raised the possibility of a WA expansion.
 
With planning for the Gold Coast club and the new western Sydney franchise well established, Demetriou cast his mind further ahead to a 20-team AFL competition that may include a third WA team.
 
Gold Coast will enter the AFL in 2011, while the western Sydney club, which was this week granted a raft of concessions, will launch in 2012.
 
Demetriou said Tasmania and north Queensland were two frontiers the AFL may choose to expand into, while WA, which has supported two AFL clubs since 1995, could also be in line for a new licence.  
 
"I don't think you can ever say never in this world, but if we were to have another team down the track you would have to say that Tasmania is the logical place for that team to be," Demetriou said at a La Trobe University alumni function.

"We have expressed that view to the Tasmanian Government.

"Beyond that, if we were to go to 20 teams - and who knows, that may or may not happen - you'd have to think it wouldn't be a team in Melbourne because we've got 10.

"But a place like Western Australia, which is a booming state, or even northern Queensland, are the two places that have some attraction."
 
West Coast chief executive officer Trevor Nisbett said his club had not discussed the topic at any level.
 
"It is news to all of us," Nisbett said.
 
"With the Gold Coast and Western Sydney coming in over the next few years and the possibility of Tasmania in the future, it would appear that a decision on Northern Queensland and WA is a fair way off, and there would need to be a great deal of research to ensure three teams in our state would be sustainable.
 
"However, we will discuss Andrew's comments at our next opportunity."