COLLINGWOOD has threatened to take the AFL to court should it proceed with a plan to grant the Kangaroos a Gold Coast zone as part of a relocation package.

With further negotiations between the AFL and the Kangaroos board scheduled over the coming days on the sensitive subject of a permanent move to Queensland by 2010, Magpies president Eddie McGuire said his club would challenge the prospective inducements on offer at the highest legal level.

"Collingwood would fight as hard as is humanly possible and take all actions as is required to fight any more compromises to the draft," McGuire told The Age. "This is not a marketing exercise. We are running a football competition.

"I have been at pains to say we would support all clubs, including North Melbourne — even though they are privately owned — to receive financial support from the AFL. Let them have 55 coaches, a new stadium and new gym equipment but once the ball is bounced let's make it an even competition.

"Finally we have an uncompromised draft. West Coast lose a star player and he goes to the team on the bottom of the ladder. That's the way it should be. To give North a free kick as big as their own zone taints the integrity of the competition in the same way as drug cheating."

While the Kangaroos board remains divided over relocating, club directors Stephen Head and Andrew Carter are continuing to pursue the exercise with the AFL executive, the commission determined to procure a commitment from the club by the end of 2007.

Problems presented by the Kangaroos' complicated share structure and the AFL's yet-to-be completed push to secure a profitable stadium deal for the club are just two major headaches stalling the proceedings, along with the sticking point over how long AFL support for the relocated club would last.

The AFL has suggested the Kangaroos — who would not be forced to lose the name North Melbourne in the short term — could stand on their own by 2014, a fact disputed by the club that has demanded its own zone in its first years and also priority draft picks, demands the AFL has not refused.

The independently funded Gemba report into the club's future said the Kangaroos could not survive in Melbourne with their current Telstra Dome agreement and without extra AFL support. The club is funded to the tune of $2.6 million a year with $1.2 million of that amount coming from the competition's underwriting of matches played at Carrara. Whether the AFL redevelops Carrara or helps build a new stadium at Palm Meadows, the financial deal would be based on the hugely profitable Skilled Stadium model enjoyed by Geelong.

McGuire is understood to have underlined his concerns to the commission, further complicating the relocation push the AFL sees at crucial to the development of the game in Queensland. It has not ruled out withdrawing funding from the Kangaroos should they refuse to relocate.

"I'm fighting this not just for Collingwood," said McGuire. "I'm fighting this for the integrity of the competition. Two or three years is a lifetime for a football club in terms of draft picks … There is no need to put icing on the cake just to get them there.

"They should not be given one or two premierships just for good measure. To throw this up having tested everyone's patience on this issue for the last couple of decades is wrong."

Under McGuire's stewardship, Collingwood led the charge against an attempt by the AFL in 2001 to grant Sydney and Brisbane extra draft choices from local zones. Essendon joined the Magpies in that fight, which saw the league ultimately abandon the push.

Since then, Brisbane has gradually lost its salary cap concessions while Sydney still has extra room of about $800,000, granted as a cost-of-living concession.