But Swans chairman Andrew Pridham says short-sighted criticism, especially from Victorian clubs, risks damaging the code.

Pridham's view, formed after first-hand experience of Sydney being attacked for its talent academy and now dismantled cost-of-living allowance, comes as the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney have never sat prettier at round four.

The Suns and Swans are 3-1, third and fifth on the ladder. The Giants are 2-2 but - more significantly - the 86-point round four winners are ominously improved in their fifth year in the competition.

The AFL's move on Tuesday to clarify rules for northern club talent academies, and outstanding weekend performances by Sydney academy products Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills provide further backdrop to Pridham's pointed comments.

"The spotlight comes on to clubs that are successful, and it's no surprise that with the Giants now successful people are suddenly focusing on them.

"The same will happen to Gold Coast and any benefits they've got. If suddenly Port Adelaide start getting all these stars from China, clubs will start saying it's not fair," Pridham told Fairfax Media.

"There's a tendency for people to look for reasons of advantage; about why other clubs are successful, rather than focusing on what they can do to be successful. Some clubs just do things better sometimes. And that's why they're consistently better.

"Where things always go off the rails in the football world that I see, is that far too often it comes down to who won the game last week and how did they win that?

"The game has to be really careful that if we set down long-term strategies, they remain long-term strategies and everyone has to buy into them. You can't say, 'We'll support the expansion into the northern markets' … and then as soon as the Giants or Gold Coast become a real threat for the flag say, 'It's costing too much money'. And to a degree I think that's starting to happen."

Sydney has this year exceeded 50,000 members for the first time in history; becoming the first club in the AFL's so-called northern markets to do so.

Hoping there will one day be a wait list for Sydney memberships, Pridham directly connects the record in paid-up supporters to activity and interest developed by the Swans academy.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire famously predicted last year that the Swans academy would "destroy the game" through providing unfair advantage.

Pridham said on Thursday he felt the Swans' academy set-up was safe – Victorian clubs have been placated on the topic to a degree by the AFL's introduction this year of new, zoned, club-branded 'Next Generation' academies.

"But I think absolutely if we didn't have an independent (AFL) commission one: it (the Swans academy) would never have been in place, and two: it would have been taken away (after rival club criticism last year).

"I think there are certainly still clubs that will feel that if a kid who has come via the academy plays a great game, they'll say it's not fair that club has that player because they got him through the academy and we didn't get that opportunity.

"But I've got no doubt that largely, now, the AFL ignores it. It knows it is just noise."

Expansion clubs on the rise

Combined wins after round 4 by Sydney, Greater Western Sydney & Gold Coast

2012 - 4  (all to Sydney Swans, GWS first year)

2013 - 4  (Syd 3, GC 1, GWS 0)

2014 - 5  (S 1, GC 2, GWS 2)

2015 - 6  (S 3, GC 0, GWS 3)

2016 - 8  (S 3, GC 3, GWS 2)