Australian football

MANGOPLAH Cookardinia United Eastlakes officials are poised to officially offer their own alternative to the radical "AFL Riverina" plan, after AFL bosses granted the Riverina Football League (RFL) an extension for their 2010 competition proposal.

The RFL voted against the implementation of the "AFL Riverina" competition at a meeting earlier this week, with a vote of 7-2 with one abstainment resulting.

Mangoplah CUE's plan revolves around the 15 RFL and Farrer League sides being split into three divisions based on geography, with each team playing each other twice before playing teams outside of their divisions once for an 18-game season, with a top eight finals structure.

After the initial unveiling of the AFL's future of the sport, clubs had two weeks to submit their thoughts on the scheme with AFL (NSW/ACT) business development manager Garry Buchanan yesterday confirming the AFL would grant a deadline extension to the RFL.

Buchanan confirmed the RFL had asked for an extra two weeks to formulate an alternative to what has been put forward, which sees the Farrer League join forces with RFL with a mid-season cross over.

"We'll extend it (the deadline) but we'll contact them and ask them if they need the whole two weeks, we won't extended it for that long if we don't have to, but we'll give