WESTERN BULLDOGS president David Smorgon publicly thanked the State Government yesterday for taking control of the planning process of the Whitten Oval redevelopment.

Smorgon told the president's lunch that the State Government's decision to remove control of the $26 million project from the Maribyrnong City Council was a "very brave and bold decision".

The Bulldogs, with the help of lawyer and No. 1 ticket-holder Peter Gordon, last week sought the Government's intervention in the redevelopment after 18 months of what Smorgon described as "procrastination and the delays and the frustration".

According to the Bulldogs, the council had virtually halted the more than half-completed redevelopment by refusing a vital permit to set up a Victoria University learning centre in one of Whitten Oval's condemned stands.

The council has in turn accused the club of bureaucratic bungling.

Had the redevelopment continued to be delayed, the public funding for the initiative — which includes $8 million from the former Howard government — would have been frozen.

The club, with its multimillion-dollar debts, would have become insolvent.

Smorgon said the Government's move had allowed the project to proceed.

"Thanks to the work of Peter (Gordon) and Cam (Rose, Bulldogs chief executive) and other advisers. We say thank you to the State Government, to the Premier, to all the other ministers involved, to their advisers, for making a right decision …"

Smorgon said the club had spent hundreds of hours in meetings and discussions with the council over the past 18 months, but "finally, though, our patience ran out".