Blacktown mayor Leo Kelly has blasted rugby league officials for "sitting on their hands" as the AFL on Wednesday spruiked its plans for a western Sydney team in 2012.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou was at Blacktown Olympic Park on Wednesday to speak at a Blacktown 2025 conference.

Kelly said the AFL had already established solid grass-roots support in western Sydney and it was up to the NRL to work harder to grow the game in the area.

"They (NRL) have been sitting on their hands," Kelly said at a media conference, flanked by Demetriou.

"You've only got to look at (how) their top players are deserting them.

"A lot of the supporters like the old traditional teams like Balmain and Western Suburbs have switched codes and are now following AFL, strangely enough.

"So rugby league is the master of their own destiny. We'll talk to them and there's room for them too.

"It (basing an AFL team in Blacktown) won't be a white elephant.

"We are a can-do council. We are dealing with the AFL who are a can-do code and it will work. I guarantee it."

Demetriou is under pressure from the Tasmanian lobby to give the Apple Isle an AFL licence but says the AFL is sticking to its plans for a Gold Coast team in 2011 and a side in western Sydney a year later.

He says the league has an $82 million future fund.

"I know there is always a great deal of discussion about our expansion plans but we have said that we are aiming to have an 18th AFL team based in western Sydney by 2012," Demetriou said.

"Nothing has changed our plans."

Kelly defended the western Sydney team's chances of success.

"We've produced champions in every sport," he said.

"We'll continue to do so and you'll see some of the great AFL players come out of Blacktown in the future."

Kelly says fans come "in droves" when the Swans do promotions in Blacktown.

"People come from as far afield as Lithgow and the Blue Mountains to sit by and watch them," he said.

"So the support is already there and it's a win-win for everybody."

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