Nine's move comes as the bidding for AFL rights is set to heat up after McLachlan held a series of meetings with TV executives, including Seven's chief executive Tim Worner and his Network Ten counterpart Hamish McLennan during the past fortnight.

The AFL is set to tell the free-to-air networks, Foxtel and Telstra to begin official work on the next rights deal by the end of June.

Nine's bid for one AFL match could put it in direct competition with Ten, which has also signalled an interest in regaining a piece of the action, while incumbent free-to-air rights holder Seven is keen to keep at least the majority of its rights.

The AFL wants all broadcasters to seriously bid for the rights, believing this would inject enough competitive tension with Seven and Foxtel to ensure it reaches its desired deal of more than $1.7 billion – up from the current five-year contract of $1.25 billion, including digital rights with Telstra, which expires in 2016.

Nine last shared the AFL rights from 2002 to 2006, with Ten and Fox Footy. The network was praised for beefing up coverage of the marquee Friday-night games and turning these into more of a "news" event, while also showing matches on a Sunday. However, it would lose the rights when that deal expired, and was replaced by the returning Seven.