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Media magnate Kerry Packer planned a rebel AFL league in 1995 but ultimately opted to side with the establishment, former player agent Ricky Nixon has claimed in his new book.
At a time when Packer and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation were at war over the rights to the National Rugby League, leading to a breakaway Super League run by Murdoch, Nixon says "Packer, unbeknown to most, now had his eye on an alternative Aussie Rules competition".
Nixon, at the time, had started the powerful sports management company Flying Start, and within that the marketing arm Club 10, featuring the game's best players, including Gary Ablett, Jason Dunstall and Wayne Carey. 
"I've never mentioned this publicly before but later that year [1995], I got a call from Lloyd Williams, who was a close business associate of Kerry Packer's. Lloyd told me the Nine Network boss was interested in establishing a rival league to the AFL - similar to what he did with World Series Cricket [WSC] in the 1970s," Nixon says.
"Packer had set the conservative cricket establishment on its ear with his WSC and, while some initially doubted it would succeed, history has shown it to be a spectacular success.
"Packer was famous for 'taking a no prisoners' approach and would bulldoze on regardless, probably explaining much of his business acumen and success.
"So, out of the blue Lloyd Williams contacted me to say Packer wanted to meet with me because I managed some of the top AFL players going around, the Careys, the Abletts, and so forth.
"Packer probably figured if he could secure some of the AFL's big guns, then anything was possible in terms of an Aussie Rules super league."
In his latest autobiography, Ricky Nixon My Side, the fallen sports agent - who was one of the most powerful figures in the game 20 years ago - felt he could have been to the rebel league what former England captain Tony Greig had been to the World Series Cricket revolution. Greig had played an instrumental role in recruiting players to what became a ground-breaking concept to enliven cricket - and deliver Packer his cherished television rights.
"Perhaps Packer saw me as another Greig who could recruit players and generate interest amongst clubs for a new competition. I was genuinely enthusiastic at the prospect of meeting Packer and discussing his ideas about an AFL super league," Nixon said.
Packer's proposed plan, it seems, would have delivered content for his Channel Nine and the now defunct pay television operator Optus Vision, in which he had a share. Murdoch's Foxtel had been televising the breakaway Super League.
However, just when Nixon thought he was going to be involved in a breakaway AFL competition, Packer changed his mind on the concept.
"I was told to be on call to travel to Sydney at a moment's notice and that a private jet would fly me from Essendon airport but it could be anytime between 10am and 4pm. Early one morning I was contacted and told that the meeting to discuss a rival competition to the AFL would be held in the harbour city that day," Nixon said.
"My bag was packed and I was ready to literally fly out the door when I was given the green light. Two hours later I received another call to say the meeting was in progress but it wasn't yet time to go to the airport. By 4pm I got a call to say the meeting had broken up and all bets were off as Packer had changed his mind about a rival competition.
"While I'll never know for sure, Packer, who was not shy of a fight, may have decided it would be better to do a deal with the AFL rather than oppose the AFL. In the early days he would have been wary of pay TV and the financial affect it would have on his free-to-air TV network."
Packer would not have to wait long to enjoy the AFL rights, successfully bidding for a slice from 2002 to 2006 in one of his final major deals before his death in 2005.
Williams was unavailable for comment on Thursday.