AFTER rejecting a lucrative deal to set up the new Gold Coast team and signing a new three-year deal with reigning premier Geelong, chief executive Brian Cook has admitted that there is one other job at least that holds some interest for him and that is to run the AFL.

The Cats' highly regarded chief executive was seen as one of the leading candidates for the job when Andrew Demetriou took over the position in 2003. Cook has been in charge at Geelong since 1999, turning around massive financial debt and helping to rebuild the club into an AFL powerhouse, but yesterday he did express his interest in football's top job.

"It is on the radar, but it is not a matter of life or death for me, any more," he told Triple M.

As he hit the airwaves before Geelong's clash with the Western Bulldogs, Cook admitted that he had fielded several offers from rival clubs as well as offers from outside football in recent months.

He has been approached by Fremantle to replace departing chief executive Cameron Schwab at the end of the year, and it is also believed Racing Victoria was interested in securing Cook's services.

"I have had a couple of offers from a couple of clubs and also outside of footy, but I don't want to go through who made the offers and all the rest," he said on 3AW.

Cook rejected the Gold Coast job because of his desire to stay in Victoria with his family and still appears to have grand plans for Geelong.

He said yesterday that negotiations would begin with premiership coach Mark Thompson at the start of next season to secure his services at the club and that he wanted to oversee the creation of a football academy at Geelong.

Although he became the second high-profile football identity to knock back the Gold Coast in a week — Brisbane's triple premiership captain Michael Voss was offered a three-year deal at the embryonic club but opted to take a job as an assistant coach with West Coast the previous week — Cook does believe there is a future for the team though he says patience will be required.

"It is going to take some time, the first two years of preparation and then at least three for them to be competitive," he said yesterday.

While questions have been asked about the AFL's role in setting up the club and the appointments of both the senior coach and the chief executive, Cook said he had no problems with the league's involvement.

He said other approaches had been used to set up other expansion clubs and they had not necessarily worked.

"They are trying a new way this time around, in that we set some landmarks for people to trigger … The unfortunate thing is that they have taken up the responsibility to some extent, having a large say in the appointment of the senior coach and the CEO. They are the only two appointments," Cook said.

"I haven't got a big issue with that only because the AFL is going to supply about $13 million a year for some time, for both of the clubs."