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SANFL clubs have encouraged the league to "investigate" the prospect of inviting the Tassie Devils to join the SA competition in 2009.

The push is gaining momentum on both sides of Bass Strait with the SANFL sending "preliminary" costings of fielding a team in the country's best state league to AFL-Tasmania.

There is yet to be a formal meeting between the state league boards although AFL-Tasmania GM Scott Wade visited West Lakes for informal talks recently.

The Devils - affiliated with the VFL for eight seasons and aligned to the Kangaroos - won't make a move in deciding their future until the findings of the AFL's review of Victorian football is released, probably at the end of this season.

Wade said his league was "very interested" in considering joining the SANFL, depending on how the AFL review impacted on Tasmania. He said a move would have to be financially sustainable.

"If we are going to do this, we wouldn't be doing it for five minutes, we'd be there forever," he said.

VFL general manager Peter Schwab says the Devils are "very much" wanted in Victoria. But the AFL clubs would have huge input to the findings which are supposed to regenerate football at all levels in Victoria.

Schwab said he understood the SANFL's desire to have an even 10-team competition and the Devils want to do what's best for Tasmanian football.

"Everybody makes their own decisions," he said. "We obviously want them but at this stage we haven't instigated any discussions with Tasmania."

The Devils' VFL licence fee of $85,000 is more than other VFL clubs - Tasmania was told it must not impact financially when it joined the VFL - and it gets no so-called "incentive" payments from the VFL. Stand-alone VFL clubs Frankston and Port Melbourne receive $140,000 "incentive" money while North Ballarat, also aligned with the Kangaroos, gets $70,000 annually.

SANFL chief executive Leigh Whicker said if the Devils joined the SA league it would have no claim on the annual allocation to clubs from profits derived from Adelaide's two AFL clubs.

"It would be a stand-alone arrangement," Whicker said. "We've done some preliminary work, some costings, and sent that to Tasmania to look at as a starting point. There's also a likelihood of some corporate support through the Tasmanian Government tourist bureau.

"There's still a number of points for discussion but Tasmania is being looked at. The AFL has been kept in the loop with all this.

"We want to feel out if there's a role for them (the Devils) in the future of the SA state competition."

The idea of including a Northern Territory representative team in the SANFL, which emerged in 2000, has waned among SANFL clubs because of the extra costs and logistical problems of travelling between Darwin and Adelaide.

Bottom of the VFL ladder with one win, the Devils draw about 5000 spectators to home games at Bellerive Oval and Whicker said he thought that could be increased.