AS THE Swans are left in the dark about the AFL's muted expansion to 18 teams, the only thing coach Paul Roos knows for certain is that he will not be coaching the proposed new franchise in Sydney's western suburbs.

"I will be sitting in Maui with a couple of Pina Coladas," said Roos. "How old will the kids be? They might be going to the University of Hawaii. No, (it's) not for me."

Otherwise, like chairman Richard Colless and other Swans officials, Roos was hesitant to comment yesterday on the prospect of Sydney hosting a second team by 2012, which was raised by AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick in The Age on Saturday.

Where the club was highly vocal during its brief turf war with the Kangaroos who played some home games at the SCG in the late 1990s, this time it is reluctant to enter the fray without first discovering whether the AFL is preparing to put its full financial weight behind a new franchise and how it would be formed.

"You just don't know the structure of the team, when it's going to come in," said Roos. "It's just up to us to look after our own backyard which we have been, making sure we've got a good team on the field … it makes you keep moving forward as a footy club."

Privately there is some concern the Swans could get caught in the crossfire if the AFL goes to war with the NRL in rugby league's heartland. However, Roos believes the club has built a sufficient store of goodwill to withstand any conflict.

"I know some of the rugby league scribes have already come out pretty hard in terms of protecting their heartland," he said. "I wouldn't have thought they (NRL) are going to lie down easily and they are doing a really good job. Rugby league is in really good nick, rugby union is in good shape, obviously soccer. (But) I don't think there will be a backlash against the Swans. I think we've got a pretty good core supporter base and pretty much everyone in Sydney supports the club whether they watch them or not. It's more that the people running league and union will look to really ramp up what they are doing."

Roos does acknowledge that two more teams would stretch the pool of talent. "We saw the teams jump from 12 to 16 and another 160 players had to be found," he said. "Those who remember the 12-team competition, there was a lot of depth in footy clubs … you've got to think as you are spreading the talent there is going to be less to go around … I don't know how they are going to get the other 80 players (for two new teams)."

Meanwhile, NSW Premier Morris Iemma yesterday welcomed the prospect of a second team in Sydney, saying the government would be pleased to see a new team set up in western Sydney "when the AFL makes the commercial judgement that Sydney can sustain two viable teams".

A spokesman for the Premier, Glenn Byres, said: "The Swans have long worked hard to develop a secure foothold here and that has included a sustained campaign to expose AFL to all parts of Sydney.

"We would obviously welcome efforts to consolidate that work with the introduction of another team when the AFL makes the commercial judgement that Sydney can sustain two viable teams … (the) expanding population and the new multi-use facility we have helped fund at Blacktown should give the AFL confidence in the growing opportunities that the sport has in Sydney."