COLLINGWOOD has put forward a proposal to the AFL to enter a team in Sydney's under-18 football competition.

Wednesday's The Age reports that the Magpies hope the joint venture with Sydney University – who aren't represented in the competition – can be formalised for the 2009 season, providing the club with a means to develop their New South Wales scholarship players.

The League's NSW-ACT general manager Dale Holmes will review the proposal with other Sydney officials, but is wary of the effect a development team could have on the rest of the competition.

"What they (Collingwood) would be looking to do is use it as a vehicle for development of their scholarship-listed players and obviously using it as a vehicle to attract the kids from sort of outside the game to come and play as part of ... a development squad," he told the newspaper.

"The issues for us to consider is the pros and cons of having what is effectively a talent-development squad within a structured competition, and if that meant the players were being drawn from other clubs. If those clubs were potentially fragile, if the best kids were coming out of that club, there's potential for that to [have an] impact."

Collingwood has six players on scholarship for next year and in September signed Scott Reed, 18, as a NSW rookie-listed player – in line with AFL regulations that state graduates must start on the supplementary list.

He became a scholarship holder in 2006.

Collingwood recruiting manager Derek Hine said fielding an under-18 team in Sydney would allow the club to control "the way they (the players) are coached" and that coaching staff could be sent north on occasions to assist the team.

Fourteen of the 16 AFL clubs have committed to at least one NSW scholarship player for 2009, with six the maximum that can be signed in a year.

Collingwood's move to set up the under-18 side comes a year after it established a stand-alone VFL team for the 2008 season.