As one of Australia's leading figures in the engineering and infrastructure industry, Tony Shepherd has helped oversee some of the country's biggest projects, including construction of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.

But he has now taken on perhaps his toughest challenge yet - attempting to build new AFL club Team Greater Western Sydney from scratch to, eventually, a footballing powerhouse.

Shepherd, a lifelong Geelong supporter who describes himself as an "AFL nut", was unveiled on Friday as the inaugural chairman of the club, which continues to take shape ahead of their debut in 2012.

"It's undoubtedly a big challenge and it will take many years to establish Team GWS," Shepherd said at a press conference in Sydney also attended by AFL boss Andrew Demetriou.

"My job is to ensure we get the structure right, recruit a high quality and expert board with strong community representation, recruit the best CEO and then strive to achieve self-sufficiency within a sensible time frame."

Asked if it would be as difficult as tunnelling under Sydney Harbour, he replied: "In some respects I think this is just as challenging.

"I don't underestimate the challenge but I always enjoy these sorts of challenges of setting something up from the start."

The arrival of the new club in western Sydney has led to plenty of speculation about a 'code war' escalating between AFL and rugby league as they battle for fans and playing talent.

Team GWS has already tapped some league sources, appointing former Manly chief executive Grant Mayer as commercial sponsorship manager and Andrew Hill, who helped establish the Western Sydney Rugby League Academy, to run their talent academy.

But Shepherd believes the supposed code war is a media-driven campaign with little substance.

"I love all sports," he said. "My son-in-law used to be a league referee, I go to the State of Origin and league grand finals, it's a sport that's got a lot of really good, strong points.

"It's not my code because I'm an AFL nut, but I don't see any competition there.

"There's two million people (in western Sydney), so there's plenty of room for both codes."

GWS coach Kevin Sheedy also couldn't resist gate-crashing the packed media conference, arriving unannounced as it was drawing to a close with a football under his arm to bellow to Shepherd: "It's great to have you on board and it's amazing getting the toll taken off the M4.

"You're a genius."

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