AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has raised the unlikely prospect of moving the 2011 grand final away from the MCG due to a prospective scheduling clash with cricket.

The expanded 17-team competition next year means the AFL are looking at moving the grand final back one week to October 1, rather than the traditional last Saturday in September.

But cricket has the contractual rights to the MCG on that date.

Demetriou threw a verbal grenade into the debate on Thursday.

"We might have to play it elsewhere, the way things are going," he said.

"It seems a bit interesting that Cricket Victoria want to all of a sudden have the ground unavailable on October 1, when there's no cricket on.

"I think it's strange, hopefully some common sense will prevail."

Demetriou said he had received some "disappointing" correspondence on the matter, which Cricket Victoria CEO Tony Dodemaide assumed had come from the Melbourne Cricket Club.

"Certainly we're in the midst of doing a detailed impact assessment for our board on what the possible implications might be for cricket," Dodemaide said.

"We're treating it as a very high priority.

"I doubt whether there would be a problem, but we need to go through our due diligence and advise our board.

"It is a property of ours, it's contractual property, and really you don't give anything away until you understand what the implications of that are."

Dodemaide said compensation had not been a factor in Cricket Victoria's thinking.

"We're not out to be opportunistic, we just want to do the right thing by cricket," Dodemaide said.

Demetriou had also said the league would not do a deal with cricket.

"There won't be any financial compensation and we wont be entering into any negotiations," he said.

"If it's not available, just tell us now."

Dodemaide admitted it would be unusual for the MCG to host cricket in early October, but he pointed out the ground would also have to be on standby for October 8 in case of a drawn grand final.

Another potential factor is how quickly ground staff can prepare the MCG for cricket after the grand final.

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