Gold Coast's introduction into the AFL next season poses a major quandary with how to run the pre-season competition, but spicing up the format to be shorter and more fun is one option being looked at while another option being considered is allowing a club the opportunity to opt out of the competition.
AFL broadcasting, legal and business affairs manager Simon Lethlean said the League has several NAB Cup options for club chief executives to consider.
"The NAB Cup as we know it is going to be imperfect with 17 teams - it's as simple as that," he told afl.com.au.
"So in order to enable the competition to flow through four weeks in 2011 we either need to sit a team out or we need to revise the format and have a bit of fun with it perhaps in a shortened format of the game in the early weeks of the competition."
The AFL has tossed up one scenario where it might consider a team electing not to compete in the NAB Cup in favour of playing a series of three or four NAB Challenge matches, which the AFL locks in at specific venues prior to the commencement of the series.
"There are six options that we have tabled for the club CEO’s and three [of those options] we don't think work particularly well - although we're happy to still discuss them and see what the club thinks of them," Lethlean said. “There are also other options that we may decide to further explore over the coming months.
"The easiest one is that a club doesn't compete and we continue to run the normal 16 team NAB Cup format - but I don't think that is ideal for the competition."
One option the AFL prefers is two teams playing off for a spot in the NAB Cup prior to the commencement of the series via an overseas match.
"If West Coast and Collingwood go to South Africa to play an exhibition game in early February - perhaps that could be a qualifier for the NAB Cup," Lethlean said.
Amending the NAB Cup format is also a genuine option.
This could see the bottom eight teams from 2010 playing off in four matches, with the winners going through to the quarter finals.
The top eight from 2010 and Gold Coast would play a round-robin in groups of three (A v B, C v A and B v C), with the winner from each group going through to the quarter finals, plus the next best team.
The competition would then run like the NAB Cup normally does for the remaining three weeks.
