Pridham said he had sympathy for the Giants’ Easter dilemma, which forces them out of the Sydney market for a two-month period of each season, and noted that they had to get creative to find solutions, like taking three games per year to Canberra – but he said for “a range of commercial reasons”, and because the will of Sydney’s fanbase, they would not entertain letting them use the SCG at that time.

Giants chief executive David Matthews is behind the idea, and said he made the suggestion about coming to Sydney to his counterparts at Richmond as they consider taking games to Tasmania from next year. His brother, Simon, is Richmond’s chief operating officer.

If the SCG is off the table, Matthews said Accor Stadium – the only other venue in Sydney capable of hosting AFL games – is also under consideration.

“It could solve a few problems,” he said.

“Firstly, it reinforces the strategic priority that Sydney is for the AFL to actually get more content up here. To get a big club like Richmond up here would be good for them, for the code, and it is obviously something that would help us. And the idea of it being Richmond home game means that we wouldn’t have to use a home game in that period. It’s then down to sort of the financials and the level of support that they may or may not get out of government.”

Matthews said he notified outgoing Swans chief executive Tom Harley about their thinking on Monday, but wasn’t surprised about Pridham’s lack of “enthusiasm” about sharing the SCG.

“[Harley’s] role changes in three or four weeks. He’d probably be at Docklands trying to help us solve issues like that – and right now he’s probably in a situation where he needs to make sure he’s trying to protect the Swans’ patch,” he said.

“They’ve got a user agreement that would give them some sort of exclusivity. The AFL need to consider that.

“I can understand the Swans’ position. I also know that the Swans and the Giants have to play a role for the AFL to try to grow the market. It’s not really in even the Swans’ interest that we have this massive market absence. The reason we started a second club in NSW is that we wanted football played every week.”

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The oval at Blacktown International Sportspark would require further investment to get up to scratch for home-and-away fixtures, Matthews said, and was therefore not an option for 2026. The Giants have played only one home-and-away match at Blacktown, in round three of their debut season in 2012, as they awaited the completion of Engie Stadium’s redevelopment.

“That’s more a question for the AFL,” Matthews said of Blacktown. “You can play pre-season games there, but just in terms of broadcast facilities, corporate facilities, access, public transport … there’d be a fair bit of work required.”