HAWTHORN president Jeff Kennett has blasted the concept of playing AFL matches overseas, labelling it as a “an absolute waste of time and money”.

Port Adelaide and the Gold Coast Suns played their Round 8 match in 2017 in Shanghai and will again meet in China in Round 9 this season.

And the AFL is keen to push even further into the international market, eyeing India as its next destination.

Four clubs — Essendon, GWS, Richmond and Hawthorn — are reportedly interested in staging a match in the world’s second most populous country.

Round 18

But Kennett lambasted the proposition, saying while he was president Hawthorn would never play a match for premiership points overseas.

Port Adelaide and the Suns will play in Shanghai for the second year. Photo: AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy Source: AAP

“We are serious about what we do,” Kennett told SEN.

“We have obligations to our 80,000 members or whatever it is and that is to do whatever we can to win a premiership — and that’s not playing in China, that’s not playing in India.

“My job — the board’s job — is to play the game seriously in the environment in which it lives. It will never live in China and it will never live in India.

“It’s an absolute waste of time and money.

“The AFL should be focused on what it does well and why it was established and that’s to oversee the operation of the code in Australia.”

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has made it his mandate to push the code internationally, with the creation of AFLX seen as a tool to market footy overseas.

Indeed, AFL general manager of China and India David Stevenson is travelling to India this week on a fact-finding mission, highlighting the league’s intent.

“China and India are huge migrant markets,” McLachlan said last week.

“India has facilities that are easy, so you’ve got population and the scale, you’ve got the economic growth and an appetite to follow sport.

“There are potentially opportunities in India and they’re being explored at the moment.”

Despite the prospect of playing in a lucrative match that could one day see Hawthorn have a strong international supporter base, Kennett suggested the risk was not worth the reward.

“We are a professional team. I’m not going to put at risk four premiership points to have you flying from here to China or here to India,” Kennett said.

“That’s not what we’re paid to do. I don’t even like them going overseas for exhibition games. I’ve said ‘no’ to that as well.

“It’s about damage on the field. I’m worried about the risk for winning points.

“With due respect to the teams that go over there, I don’t like the idea that when we’re paid to try and win a premiership you therefore put your players on a plane to travel miles into a foreign environment to play a game of football.”