By Michael Rogers

TEAM GWS recruit Israel Folau might become the face of AFL in western Sydney but the rugby league convert will still do his most important work on the field.

That's the view of the man charged with developing Australian football in its fledgling markets, League general manager of market development David Matthews.

Folau's four-year, multi-million dollar deal with the AFL's proposed 18th team includes significant remuneration for marketing and promotional duties.

But Matthews said the best way for the 21-year-old to promote his new code of choice was to become a star for his new club from 2011 onwards.

"People try to separate the components; what I say is that the testing that the AFL talent people and GWS did on him gave us a lot of confidence that he'll make a successful transition and that's the best promotion," Matthews said on Tuesday.

"What we've done is provide the two new clubs [Team GWS and Gold Coast] with a set of rules to work within to try to develop their playing list.

"It's really important, firstly, that we get elite talent that can succeed and secondly, if that elite talent has got a profile, as Israel does, that can help us build awareness for the game then it's a fantastic outcome on both counts."

While both Team GWS and Gold Coast have lured high-profile rugby league players in Folau and Karmichael Hunt, Matthews said signing NRL stars wasn't necessarily an essential part of the strategy to build the new teams.

"We always know these things are going to create a lot of interest but that's not the objective. The objective is getting elite talent into the AFL competition and when you've just created 100 new jobs, we're happy to consider talent from anywhere," he said.

"For someone like Karmichael Hunt, who comes off contract at the Broncos and is considering his options, we wanted to be an alternative. Same thing with Israel Folau.

"These guys are young enough and talented enough that if they test well enough, then we're certainly happy to see AFL clubs like GWS and the Gold Coast contract them."

Matthews said he was confident that Team GWS' football department, which boasts the experience of coach Kevin Sheedy, high performance manager Alan McConnell and football manager Graeme 'Gubby' Allan, would be able to develop an imposing football team.

And while Folau will undoubtedly draw his share of the headlines, Matthews said Sheedy's legendary spruiking ability would create a new breed of stars at the club.

"One of the great things about Kevin Sheedy is that he's a person who creates big names," he said.

"He'll take talented young players - and I put Israel Folau in that group - and he's going to make them household names across Australia. He'll promote them, he'll promote their personalities, he'll develop them as players."