THE AFL will consider redrawing the 2008 fixture and pulling the Kangaroos out of Gold Coast games should they reject the league's $100 million relocation offer.

In what would prove a historic and unprecedented move, The Age understands the AFL now believes it would be impossible to expand into the northern market with the Kangaroos next season if they choose to remain a Melbourne-based club.

The AFL fixture would be altered to put in place games more attractive and saleable to the Gold Coast market.

Kangaroos chief executive Rick Aylett yesterday addressed the club's players, coach Dean Laidley and staff assuring them that the club had not rejected the AFL's proposal but wanted another year to make up its mind, plunging it into survival mode for yet another season.

With the original December 1 deadline now only days away, the view of the James Brayshaw faction is that the AFL will weaken and allow it at least another season to reach a decision, but the league has indicated it will set about creating a 17th club in the new year should the Kangaroos continue to stall.

While the league has a deal to play seven Kangaroos home-and-away games at Carrara over the next two seasons — worth a total of $2.8 million to the club — it already has broached the possibility of a financial settlement with the divided Kangaroos board.

Contrary to reports at the weekend that the club had rejected the AFL relocation offer, the Kangaroos have put a proposal to league executive Gillon McLachlan to allow them another year to implement a survival plan orchestrated by Brayshaw but to keep the relocation offer on the table.

The AFL is expected to reject that push within the next seven days. McLachlan, who refused last night to comment on negotiations, is also the AFL's manager in charge of the fixture.

The Kangaroos' board is scheduled to meet tomorrow but a vote on relocation is not expected until a stadium deal is put in place. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou told the 16 clubs last week that he hoped the $120 million first stage of the Carrara redevelopment would be guaranteed by a Queensland Government consortium within weeks.

While Brayshaw's faction — which includes directors Ron Joseph and Brayshaw's elder brother Mark, who has chosen to support his brother's one-year survival plan — claims the club cannot hope to reach a decision without a concrete stadium agreement, the AFL believes the group is using the Carrara issue as a delaying tactic.

Brayshaw, who is holidaying in the US, would take over the presidency should the AFL offer be refused, with only Mark and Joseph likely to remain on the board.

Further complicating the looming showdown between North Melbourne and the AFL is the fact the club's shareholders, led by Peter de Rauch and Bob Ansett, are unlikely to vote for the relocation.

The AFL is continuing to consider legal advice regarding the shareholders but the view of the North Melbourne board is that it could not succeed in getting the AFL's ground-breaking offer past both its members and its shareholders. The AFL, which guarantees the Kangaroos' debt, is unlikely to draw on that guarantee as a threat, insisting the development of a 17th licence would prove cheaper and simpler.

While Collingwood has put its hand up to step into the Gold Coast market on a part-time basis, next year's fixture would more likely be made up of a variety of clubs playing home games at Carrara.