THE FAMOUS China guernsey stoush is long gone.

Port Adelaide has backed down from its insistence Gold Coast gives up wearing its red and yellow jumpers for their game in Shanghai.

The Power initially wanted the Suns to ditch their home colours for this year's inaugural China game for fears the Chinese supporters would gravitate towards them.

But both clubs have come to an understanding ahead of agreeing to resume the rivalry at Adelaide Arena at Jiangwan Stadium in round nine of the 2018 season.

"When we first started thinking about the China game in 2017, we were concerned about the guernsey because it was the national colours of China," the Power's chief executive Keith Thomas said.

"The reality is, it's not that big of a deal.

"It wasn't that big of a deal to the people over there, it's not a big deal to us and to be honest, it hasn't even factored into our discussion.

"I'm sure Gold Coast will wear their home guernsey, or a derivative of that.

"It will be up to them, but it's not an issue for us."

Suns chief executive Mark Evans added: "Keith and I, in our discussions, we've been very relaxed about the guernsey.

"It's created far more attention than it deserved.

"We always believe your colours are your colours and it's up to you whether you change that.

"I don't think that issue is a worry or a concern for either of us."

The Suns are listed as the 'home' team for the fixture having sold one of their games to the Power, who are contractually required to play 11 home games at Adelaide Oval every year.

Evans is more concerned with his club taking a more positive approach to the China fixture than they did this year.

"We're working with Port Adelaide to try and pull a lot more weight this year in terms of helping put the event on," Evans said.

"When we sat down with Keith for a review of the event, there were some difficulties for Gold Coast at the start of last year.

"We have had a change in CEO and a renewed commitment towards making things work on the Gold Coast, but it left us a little behind on some of the logistics.

"Certainly, we'd like to improve our travel arrangements for players and for supporters and we think we can get far more Gold Coast people there wearing the red and gold scarves."

The Power and the Suns will have their bye in round 10 next season – a week later than this year, but still likely to be out of tilt with the rest of the competition.

"We did play around with whether we could have the game a bit later and push up against our standard byes, but it didn't work for a number of reasons," the AFL's general manager of clubs Travis Auld said.

"One of which is the weather.

"It seems to be that mid-May time works quite well in Shanghai."