Geelong CEO Brian Cook says the club is "disappointed" by the AFL's decision to keep the AFL Women's league as an eight team competition until 2019.
CEO Gillon McLachlan said on Wednesday that the competition will remain at eight teams for at least the next two years, with no plans to expand before then.
However, Cook said the club was planning on entering the league as early as next year.
Geelong was one of several clubs that applied for an AFLW licence, but were unsuccessful. The club has since established its own VFL Women's side which will compete this season.
"We had expectations of being in the competition in 2018. And we shaped our structures around women’s football to suit that," Cook told the club's website.
"We might be spending somewhere around $250,000 to $300,000 this year to ensure that we have a really strong team to enter the AFL probably next year.
"We've been planning for it. We've budgeted for it. We've structured for it. We've gone out and recruited people on that basis.
"I think his original view was we should expand the competition in 2018. That's changed.
“I think we’ve got to also be really careful that the players we bring up over the next 12 to 24 months aren’t simply snapped up by other clubs and they stay at the other clubs.
“They’re the issues for me.”
