NATIONAL Rugby League boss David Gallop yesterday described western Sydney as a football "battleground" after revelations the AFL will launch a full-blown raid into the rugby league heartland.

And Australian Rugby Union supremo John O'Neill called the AFL's expansion a wake-up call while flagging the possibility of the expedited introduction of a Super 14 side to play out of Parramatta Stadium.

"For NRL and rugby union, in particular, we are being attacked in the heartland by the AFL and we have to fight very hard to protect that heartland," O'Neill said.

"The competitive pressures in this country surpass anything that happens anywhere else in the world. We're the only country with four football codes — AFL, NRL, rugby union and football.

"That's why in recent times we've speculated … the expansion of Super rugby could quite possibly include a team on the Gold Coast and western Sydney at Parramatta Stadium. Sydney and NSW are more than capable of hosting two rugby union teams.

"Rugby league has eight teams in Sydney and we've got one with the Waratahs. When we're looking at strategic choices, western Sydney has to at least be on the agenda.

"With the arrival and expansion of the A-League, the cake is only so big and it's going to get cut up into smaller slices.

"It's the price of competition. We're unbelievably mindful of the need to grow the game and to put up a fight to stop the inroads being made, particularly by AFL."

AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick told The Age that the competition intended to expand from 16 to 18 clubs, with a new team on the Gold Coast in 2011 and another in western Sydney in 2012.

Western Sydney is league's traditional heartland but the creation of an AFL team in the middle of Penrith Panthers territory, one of league's largest and greatest nurseries, is the official declaration of war. The A-League has already stated its intention to have a team in western Sydney.

"Western Sydney is a battleground," Gallop said.

"We're very strong in that area and we need to continue putting resources into our development programs in the west.

"Expansion is a difficult exercise and they will face a range of issues. For us, it's just another reminder of how competitive the market is. We're well aware of the threat of other codes."

Gallop said the AFL's plans were further vindication of the NRL's move into south-east Queensland last year with the establishment of the Gold Coast Titans.

Panthers general manager Mick Leary admitted the AFL's move was a serious threat and Parramatta boss Denis Fitzgerald called for the NRL to consider expansion of its own, with a Sydney team moving to the NSW Central Coast and New Zealand fielding a second team.

On the possibility of AFL luring western Sydney juniors away from league, Fitzgerald said: "There's already plenty of AFL in western Sydney, north-western Sydney, south-western Sydney, I don't think it'll make too much of a difference, to be honest. There's already a lot of junior AFL fields and competitions. From a Sydney point of view, the Swans have been doing well for a few years now so AFL has already been trying to make inroads. I can't see rugby league changing from being the No. 1 code. You can't say always, but I can't see it happening for at least 10 years."

Leary called for the NRL to have more junior development officers out west.

"Our league is undoubtedly the best-run junior league anywhere and we need to protect that. We won't be taking this lightly," he said.

The man in charge of the increasingly popular A-League, Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley, said the FFA still planned to have a side in western Sydney within the next two to three years.

"Western Sydney is a great football region," Buckley said.