AFL hands Melbourne strict deadline on Waverley Park move

The AFL has given Melbourne a June 30 deadline to confirm whether its long-mooted move to Caulfield Racecourse is on or off.

If confirmed in time, the league will allow the Demons to immediately set up camp at Waverley Park.

If not, the AFL will hand the venue to Richmond on a temporary basis while Punt Road is redeveloped.

Melbourne would then have the option to move to Waverley after the Tigers depart midway through next year.

The AFL could also make a call earlier than June 30 if it feels Melbourne's move to Caulfield is stalling, though recent discussions between the state government, Melbourne Racing Club and Melbourne have been positive enough to keep the door ajar for the Dees.

Under Paul Guerra's leadership, Melbourne was prepared to move to Waverley without a firm commitment of a relocation to Caulfield down the track. But the board, led by Steven Smith, shared a different view, demanding Caulfield be signed off before any Waverley Park agreement was signed.

In essence, this is also the AFL's position.

Meanwhile, the Tigers have been supremely confident for some time that they would be handed the keys to Waverley, but have not been given the tick of approval from league HQ yet as all parties wait on Melbourne to reach an agreement on Caulfield.

There is no wriggle room on Richmond's agreement with its building company, with the club committed to handing over the Punt Road keys by the end of the men's season.

From that point, the Tigers will need a venue for their AFLW team to train and for the men to return in early November.

The crux of the debate around Caulfield has centred around a tunnel which Melbourne would like to build to traffic players and staff from a new, state of the art indoor training facility to the oval.

But privately the Demons feel as if they have made good progress on the tunnel conundrum, and are continuing to work on solutions to lock in Caulfield and therefore trigger a short-term move to Waverley.

If Melbourne wins the right to move to Waverley, which is the less likely of the two options but still possible, Richmond would use Gosch's Paddock until Punt Road is ready next winter.