It's official.

The man responsible for those Martians, seagulls and marshmallows is set to re-enter the AFL landscape.

But don't tell Vlad (aka. Andrew Demetriou) and his cohorts that the appointment of AFL legend Kevin Sheedy as Team GWS's inaugural senior coach is purely a marketing stunt.

At Sheedy's official unveiling in Blacktown on Monday morning, league executives David Matthews and Sam Mostyn were quick to drive home the message that the capture of the four-time Essendon premiership coach had more substance to it than what sceptics might believe.

"When you're trying to build something new like this, you're looking for the best people to put on these opportunities and first and foremost, this man is a coach," Matthews said of Sheedy.

Mostyn added: "When you've got someone of the capacity of Kevin Sheedy in your midst, how stupid would it be to waste that capacity and waste that talent?"

While the man himself admitted that the line between marketer extraordinaire and senior coach might be blurred in western Sydney, Sheedy likes to see himself as 'a foreman on the floor at a building site' in his new role that will be crucially important to the success of arguably the most ambitious venture the league has ever undertaken.

"As soon as you turn up to a conference like this, people think, 'oh well, is it (all about) marketing?'," said Sheedy.

"When I left Essendon there was 100 press people there and I was leaving the club - that wasn't really good marketing," he said with a chuckle.

"From that point of view I think sometimes what it really is about is that I'm a development person, I'm a development coach."

As for the AFL's decision to buck the recent trend of clubs acquiring younger coaches in favour of 61-year-old Sheedy, Demetriou described the apparent stigma attached to 60-plus-year-olds taking on senior coaching jobs as nonsense.

"Some of the great CEOs running around the world are over 60, I think there's four NFL coaches who are over 60," Demetriou said.

"I don't buy any of that rubbish. Kevin Sheedy is a wonderful coach with an outstanding record. I didn't even know Kevin was 61 until someone told me the other day. It's irrelevant to be honest."

Sheedy denied he was mad in taking on the job which will see him coach the proposed 18th AFL team during its first season in 2012 following his remarkable 27-year reign with the Bombers which ended two seasons ago.

The triple Richmond premiership defender, who with 635 games coached under his belt trails only Collingwood great Jock McHale (714) on the all-time list, sees the role as a 'tremendous opportunity' and wants Team GWS to become the Sydney Opera House of the AFL.

"We're going to get this right," Sheedy said.

"I'm very, very fortunate and very humble to be given that chance to build a new club."

"Just imagine if you could create a club as good as the Opera House ... this area has that opportunity and the AFL should get a license given to these (people), keep them living here to create one of the greatest clubs this nation's ever seen."

Demetriou said that Sheedy's appointment was the latest of what will eventually be a string of significant announcements for Team GWS.

"Some really, really exciting things are happening, our guys have been putting in a lot of work and we're trying to do the best we can and trying to get it right and time will tell," Demetriou said.

"We've got to get a football manager in there, we've got to get a recruiting manager in there, we've got to get a CEO in there ... stay tuned, some exciting things are happening."