The Kangaroos claim they have been squeezed out of the city by the AFL, saying the Western Bulldogs now seem to be the preferred club to expand into the state's west.

North Melbourne will no longer hold community camps in the city and, as announced on Tuesday, will not play a pre-season match next year in Ballarat for the first time in more than six years.

Kangaroos chief executive officer Carl Dilena told The Courier on Wednesday the club was disappointed to be told by the AFL it would not hold any further community camps in Ballarat.

The club held six consecutive community camps in the city between 2009 and 2014, only to be told by the AFL it would not return next year.

Now, Dilena said, the club would be forced to look elsewhere in Victoria to make its presence felt.

It will play its only regional NAB Challenge game in Shepparton next year.

"To us it was surprising, we were presuming we would be continuing the relationship we had built up over the years," Dilena said.

"The first we heard of it was when council (City of Ballarat) notified us that they wouldn't be extending our sponsorship agreement.

"The AFL told us we wouldn't be doing our community camp in Ballarat, it certainly wasn't our doing...we thought we would be continuing as we had in the past.

"It was disappointing the way it unfolded."

The Western Bulldogs now loom as the front runner to hold its camp in Ballarat next year as it plans to become the team that extends into western Victoria.

The Bulldogs will play against Melbourne in a NAB Challenge match in March, as they look to expand beyond Melbourne's western suburbs and "win the west".

Dilena said North Melbourne would continue to use Hobart as a second base, but still had a desire to establish a base somewhere in regional Victoria.

"The Bulldogs are looking to become the team of the west, which I can understand," Dilena said.

"It doesn't make sense for smaller Victorian clubs to be cannibalising each other."

Dilena said North Melbourne's partial alignment with the North Ballarat Roosters would continue in 2015, with a full review of the longer term future to be completed in the coming weeks.