AS A football club that operates in the interests of its members, North Melbourne did the only thing it could in rejecting the AFL's attractive offer to relocate it to the Gold Coast. As a corporate entity, though, it has quite possibly made a mistake. Such is the dilemma created by the evolution of professional sports clubs into businesses.

In human terms, how could a group of administrators look their supporters in the eye and tell them they were taking their football club away? It would be like a doctor recommending to a large family that life-support be withdrawn from a youthful loved one while the possibility of a recovery remained real.

On the other hand, would you want to be the director of a business refusing to budge from a shaky course while a handsome offer of a guaranteed future was staring up at you from the boardroom table?

The great pity of the relocation concept in general is that it most hurts those who are the most faithful. They are the supporters who attend every game they can. They are the ones for whom their football club adds, or even gives, meaning to life. They are the ones for whom the idea of a club wearing their colours, carrying their mascot, singing their song, but playing in another state while purporting to still be theirs, is an offensive con.

Then there's harsh reality. The logic still screams out that Victoria must find a way of shedding some of its 10 clubs. The beleaguered continue to innovate and search for solutions but the noose grows no less tight.

Over the years, the AFL has tried a range of medications to generate new life among its ailing but has never quite developed the magic potion. In 1989, it experimented by force-feeding strong, distasteful medicine that was rejected when Footscray took its fight for life to the streets. The league then opted for a sugar-coated pill, providing incentive packages to make mergers attractive. It lost its nerve on this after Don Scott aroused such bile among Hawthorn members in 1996. The AFL then took the line that it would support its clubs down a road of self-determination. Then it grew impatient and attempted to sell sunshine as a cure to the Kangaroos' ills.

With Victoria's less well-endowed clubs continuing to be financially stretched and struggling to be competitive on the field, it's impossible to argue with the reasonableness of a continued search for equilibrium within the competition. The AFL hasn't helped itself, though, in that its motives have too often appeared dubious to club supporters. An issue so volatile requires a facilitator to be free of any interest of its own. The AFL has too often been seen to have its own agenda.

It's worth remembering that the boards and supporters of two clubs, Fitzroy and North Melbourne, were preparing to enter a willing merger in 1996 until the commission and the other clubs derailed them. The AFL was desperate to reinforce the ailing Brisbane Bears, while the clubs feared the potential of an already-powerful North being further fortified. Thus the Brisbane Lions were born, becoming the first club in more than 40 years to win three consecutive premierships.

We expect no more than self-interest from the clubs. As for the AFL, it can always argue that this was the crucial outcome on its path to development of the game in Queensland.

On the other hand, who knows whether other Melbourne clubs may have been prepared to countenance mergers had the "Kanga-Roys" been allowed to form and emerged as a harmonious unit? The rancour and mistrust that has forever blighted the issue of the re-configuration of clubs may have been largely overcome. This moment in history may be seen as a triumph, but it could just as easily be lamented as a lost opportunity.

In its attempt to relocate the Kangaroos, the AFL again has had an agenda. While it can argue that it is offering the club a more certain future, it has made clear that its real priority is the establishment of a team on the Gold Coast. Andrew Demetriou said on Thursday that "the Gold Coast is ready for AFL football, and we need to be in the fastest-growing population base in Australia". Club supporters don't want to know that they and their team are a secondary priority.

As for the Gold Coast being ready for AFL football, that remains an arguable proposition. Certainly the experience of games played at Carrara over a 20-year span has been less than overwhelming. From this distance, it's hard to imagine that in a state where the AFL lags a considerable way behind rugby league in popularity — and where the Brisbane Lions have established a monopoly — a second club is yet viable.

In recent years, Port Adelaide's financial circumstances have elicited something less than unbridled enthusiasm from the AFL. If a heartland state such as South Australia is at close to full stretch supporting two clubs, it would seem an ambitious venture to be setting up a second club in non-heartland territory.

If it happens, it will now be through the development of a 17th club. Demetriou must make the biggest decision of his time at the AFL's helm.

Meanwhile, the Kangaroos will battle on in Melbourne and most will be happy that they do. Every sport needs its tales of battlers and North Melbourne continues to provide Australian football with a rich story.