THE AFL has updated clubs on their plans to create expansion teams on the Gold Coast and western Sydney when it met with the 16 club chief executives in Melbourne on Thursday.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said it was still to be decided how the new teams would create their playing lists, with consultation needed on how they would acquire experienced players from existing clubs, what draft concessions they would be given and whether they would be given priority access to recruiting zones in their areas.

The league's football operations manager Adrian Anderson, legal services manager Andrew Dillon and development manager David Matthews will consult with the chief executives, coaches, football managers and recruiting managers of all clubs, starting from next week.

Demetriou also said while the new Queensland team is slated to join the AFL in 2011, opinions differed on whether the new Sydney club should join in the same season, or whether there should temporarily be a 17-team competition.

Brisbane chief executive Michael Bowers said there was general acceptance that the new clubs had to be established on a firm competitive footing, noting the league could not afford to "do a Brisbane Bears again", in reference to his own club's troubled origins.

He said the Lions were willing to contemplate the new Gold Coast club having special access to young Queensland players.

"Access to local talent is something the Brisbane Lions have been talking about for a number of years," Bowers said.

"It's very hard for us to take that cap off now and say that even though we wanted it, we don't want someone else to get it."

Demetriou also revealed that the AFL will establish a set of minimum terms and conditions under which all clubs must employ their coaches as part of what it says is a commitment by the league to treat coaches with more respect.

The initiative was announced after a presentation by AFL coaches' association (AFLCA) chief executive Neale Daniher at Thursday's meeting.

Demetriou said the exact nature of the new set of terms was still to be worked out, but all clubs and the league agreed that coaches needed to be treated in a more "respectful" manner.

It comes after Daniher last month publicly said there was a need for coaches and the AFL to work together better.

That followed widespread criticism by coaches over a cap on interchanges during the pre-season competition, with several complaining that there had been a lack of consultation from the AFL over that and other rule-related issues.

Meanwhile, Demetriou said the AFL was committed to increasing the number of grand final tickets available to members of the two competing clubs by about 5,000 to 26,000.