Cats’ chief executive Brian Cook says he’s disappointed in plans to freeze any AFL Women’s league expansion until the 2019 season.

In recent days, AFL boss Gillon McLachlan admitted it would take two years for the women’s competition to develop properly – effectively locking out hopeful clubs like Geelong from entering the league as soon as next year.

Cook believes this signifies a change in thinking from league headquarters.

“Look, I’m disappointed to be honest. But there must be some good reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing,” Cook said on Thursday.

“I can understand where Gill has come from. He wants the competition to be consolidated.”

“I think his original view was we should expand the competition in 2018. That’s changed.”

The Cats were one of a number of clubs to apply for an AFLW licence in 2016 but were ultimately unsuccessful in joining the eight-team competition, due to an apparent pathway gap for young female footballers in the Geelong region.

The club has since adopted its own VFL Women’s side and rolled out a number of further initiatives to address the issue.

Cook feels a decision to avoid expansion would leave the Cats in no man’s land.

“We had expectations of being in the competition in 2018. And we shaped our structures around women’s football to suit that,” Cook said.

“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."

As for the impact of a continued AFL Women’s competition without a Geelong-based team, the Cats’ boss believes it creates a two-pronged problem.

“I think we’ve got to be careful that we don’t allow all the women’s supporters in Geelong to support clubs other than Geelong. That’s a real issue for me,” he said.

“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.”