DEPENDING on who you asked yesterday the Western Bulldogs were facing extinction, or maybe just adding a little political grandstand to the facilities at the redeveloped Whitten Oval.

Victoria's Parliament will today vote on a motion from Greens member Colleen Hartland to overturn the State Government's intervention in the planning process for the oval's redevelopment. If passed, the motion would send the planning process back to a hostile Maribyrnong Council.

But yesterday there were dramatic claims the Bulldogs could face extinction as the club and government worried whether Liberal members might support the Greens' bid to scupper the government's intervention.

"We know that delays cost money," Planning Minister Justin Madden said yesterday. "If this gets up this will put the club in dire circumstances … it could put in jeopardy the Western Bulldogs Football Club."

Bulldogs president David Smorgon said that the motion, if successful, would trigger "a total financial crisis for the Western Bulldogs" and said the club would "probably not survive" if the Greens were successful in sending the $30 million project back to the council.

Opposition Leader Ted Bailleu's office later announced that the Liberals would not support the motion.

At the heart of the Greens' concerns is the minister's supposed failure to follow due process when intervening in the redevelopment and taking authority for the project away from the Maribyrnong Council. The Greens believe the Bulldogs approached Premier John Brumby directly and that Brumby then instructed Madden's office to intervene for political reasons.

But Madden said he had intervened because delays in council's planning process meant that Victoria University was threatening to withdraw the funding it had committed to the project.

The Age understands the council is sceptical about some of the community benefits offered by the redevelopment. The council is also in dispute with the club over the proposed relocation of poker machines to a facility at Edgewater Estate.

Hartland accused both parties of trying to bully her by claiming the club was at risk. 'There's a basic democratic principle at stake," she said. "The planning process should never have been taken away from council."

■North Melbourne members will vote on a proposal to reform the club's ownership structure at an extraordinary general meeting at the Telstra Dome from 6.30pm tonight.

The club is proposing to revert to a member-based ownership structure from its current shareholder-based ownership structure.

The AFL has put pressure on the club to make the change since it rejected the league's proposal to move it to the Gold Coast last year. The league made any special financial assistance in the future contingent on a change in the ownership structure.

With NICK SHERIDAN