THE AFL Commission is expected to change again before the start of next season, with the competition's longest-serving commissioner, Colin Carter, looking at stepping down after 15 years.

The author of the AFL's 2001 report into game development and grassroots football, and senior adviser to the Boston Consulting group, is due to stand for re-election by the 16 clubs in February but is considering resigning his position.

Carter's potential vacancy would bring two new faces on to the AFL's governing body with the league having already appointed headhunters to consider candidates to replace the late Ron Evans, the former commission chairman who died on the eve of the 2007 season.

Carter, a Geelong Football Club director before joining the commission, will not attend today's AFL board meeting in Sydney — he will not return from the US, where he is on a family trip, until the end of next month.

The new AFL chairman, Mike Fitzpatrick, has told all 16 clubs that he intended to continue operating with a nine-member commission following its expansion in 2005 to allow a woman, Sam Mostyn, on the board.

Fitzpatrick, who also recently returned from abroad, has appointed Geelong president Frank Costa and Adelaide chairman Bill Sanders to form a subcommittee to help search for new blood.

Today's Sydney commission talks will decide whether to move the 2007 grand final back two hours, with the first bounce to take place just after 5pm and the game being completed under lights at about 8pm.

The commission will consider Channel Ten's proposal for a twilight grand final, which would have the grand final coverage starting at midday and finishing at 11pm.

While AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou remains a staunch supporter of an afternoon play-off, the decision to put Ten's proposal to the commission remains significant. According to Ten, the rescheduled start would increase the AFL's national audience by 15 per cent.

The AFL will also meet Sydney in talks expected to again underline the club's doubts regarding the AFL's expansion into NSW. The Swans do not support the AFL's apprenticeship scheme, believing the initiative to attract more young Sydney schoolboys to Australian football remains too conservative and unworkable to achieve the scheme's original objective.

Today's commission talks will give the AFL executive an update on the progress of suspended West Coast player Ben Cousins, who was due to meet his club this week to consider a radically revised contract.

The commission's agenda also included further discussion on the AFL's drug policy and the three-strikes system that has come under attack from the Federal Government and which Fitzpatrick has conceded, could be toughened by the end of the year.

The commission will also consider the proposed new MCG home for the AFL's Hall of Fame, which is now certain to be moved from the interactive AFL World at the QV Centre in Melbourne.

Given that Telstra Dome has not tendered for the Hall of Fame — the cost the AFL has placed on the tender process is significant — the rebuilt MCG now looks certain to house the AFL's tribute to its legends and greatest champions.