The AFL has given no guarantees there will be premiership games at Manuka Oval next year after talks between league officials and the ACT Government took a twist yesterday.
While both parties said the talks in Canberra yesterday morning had been constructive, each gave a different account of what will happen next.
ACT Sports Minister Andrew Barr said that the ball was now in the AFL's court to chase other sponsors to supplement government funding, while AFL NSW-ACT chief Dale Holmes said that was the ACT Government's job.
Neither Barr nor Holmes disputed that the AFL was asking for more money to play games at Manuka Oval in the future.
''The discussion this morning was really constructive, it recognised that it's the government's responsibility to be able to put a proposition that is going to be attractive for the AFL,'' Holmes said.
''So it's not our responsibility to chase up sponsors to supplement the ACT Government.''
Earlier Barr said, ''I think the ball really is in the court of the AFL, they need to go and explore some other sponsorship opportunities from a range of sources. We have indicated how far we are prepared to go.''
Full report in today's Canberra Times