THE AFL has admitted that its bold plans to start up teams on the Gold Coast and western Sydney in the next five years represents a "leap of faith".

The nation's major sporting winter code plans on spreading its tentacles into NSW and Queensland by putting a team on the Gold Coast in 2011 and also a side in western Sydney.

"All we want I guess is our share. We've always been clear that we have national ambitions and we are keen to have a national foot print," AFL broadcasting and commercial operations general manager Gillon McLachlan told FoxSports.

"If we didn't have a team on the Gold Coast and we didn't have a team in western Sydney in the next five to ten years, I don't think that we would be really being true to what we are saying we want to do.

"We are certainly spending enough money in those areas and at some point we are going to have to take a leap of faith.

"When that is, whether it's 2011, 2012 or 2013 we couldn't be precise about that at the moment."

McLachlan said the AFL understood the concerns of the Sydney Swans.

"But western Sydney is a market we are only really just starting to get a foothold in. It's a huge market and a market in itself.

"We have the infrastructure up there. We are spending a lot of money on the grassroots in facilities and in game-development programs.

"Ultimately though to own and dominate that market our view is they need to have a team to themselves."

Rugby League and Soccer's A-League have also attracted support north of the Murray River.

"We don't ever expect to dominate rugby league or even soccer in western Sydney," McLachlan said.