THEIR lives are miles apart but taxi driver Russell Rove and corporate high-flyer "Jodie" have at least one thing in common: both believe that true football supporters are getting a raw deal when it comes to AFL grand final tickets.

Yesterday, as thousands of Geelong fans packed into Skilled Stadium for the final training session before the big day, Mr Rove, 60, cut a forlorn figure outside, holding a cardboard sign: "Wanted, Grand Final ticket. Will pay $500."

Sadly, this was nowhere near enough and he knew it. A lifelong Geelong fan, Mr Rove had a ticket but was trying to secure one for his son, who "has hardly missed a game in 25 years". Mr Rove pays $150 each year on top of his membership for a guaranteed grand final seat. Usually it's a waste of money. Not this year.

He can't understand how the AFL can defend a system that gives tickets to people with no interest in the game. "There are people who never go to a game in their lives at the grand final and then people who dedicate their whole lives to being members and can't get a seat. It's just an insult."

Back in Melbourne, Jodie is preparing for her fourth grand final in a row. The tickets come through clients of her company. She's not especially interested in football and doesn't really care who wins. Amazingly, she thinks more tickets should be available for diehards and fewer for people like her. "I would never line up or pay money to go to the grand final. I feel guilty about having these tickets," she said.

With members of Geelong and Port Adelaide receiving about 22,000 tickets between them, most people in the 100,000-strong crowd tomorrow will not be supporters of either club. The bulk of tickets will go instead to MCC and AFL members, to buyers of packages worth as much as $2000, and to corporate clients and guests.

Geelong president Frank Costa said of the club's 25,000 members, 16,568 requested a ticket, and only 9600 were successful. "I feel very deeply for them because I know what it would mean to me if I couldn't go to a grand final after following the Cats all my life."

Port Adelaide chief executive John James said the club's last tickets sold out in hours on Tuesday and he was sympathetic to those who missed out.

A contentious aspect of the system is the allocation of thousands of tickets to AFL clubs that didn't make the grand final. Each non-competing club gets 1000 tickets, which they then give away to sponsors or sell in expensive packages, generating millions of dollars.

Supporters of this system say it is an essential revenue source for the less financially secure clubs. But critics have called it "sanctioned scalping". And with the AFL awash in other sources of cash — TV rights alone are worth $780 million over five years — they might ask why battling clubs could not be compensated in other ways for the sake of fans.

Part of the problem for those who would like to change the system is that some club bosses support it. Kangaroos chief executive Rick Aylett would like his struggling club to receive even more grand final tickets — for the money. "It's very important to the financial health of the club," he said.

The Kangaroos use their allocation as part of the club's famous grand final breakfast. About 2000 people attend, paying as much as $1900, and half of them get a ticket to the game.

The AFL says some Victorian clubs would not survive without their grand final allocation. Other clubs told The Age that on-selling tickets could generate more than $200,000 in revenue, but the less tangible benefits were even greater. The tickets are often used as gifts to keep and attract corporate sponsors.

Former Labor senator John Button said fewer real fans were attending the grand final each year as the passion of the game gives way to money. "That's destroyed something in the game," said the long-time Geelong supporter.

Unless he gets locked out, Mr Button said wryly that he planned to be one of the lucky ones at tomorrow's game.

But he knows, for those who have missed out, that bitterness will continue for years to come. "People will sit at lunches and say 'I didn't get a bloody ticket and that fat bastard from Telstra got one'."

Victorian Liberal MP Bernie Finn, a Richmond supporter, complained in Parliament last week that he had missed the 1980 grand final after attending every other game that year. Mr Finn said the State Government should "talk some sense" into the AFL so it restructured grand final ticketing to give competing clubs' members a fairer go.

One of the richest clubs, Adelaide, would also be happy to see more fans at the game's biggest showpiece. The club's commercial operations manager, Phil Harper, said the Crows would support their allocation being reduced along with other clubs. "If somebody has supported a team for a whole year, we should just try to get as many of those people in as we possibly can."

Fremantle chief executive Cameron Schwab said there needed to be a balance between the interests of fans and maximising returns for the game. "There's never going to be enough tickets for everyone," Mr Schwab said.

Geelong's Mr Costa said he was not sure what should be done. "It would be just heaven if all the members who do actually apply for grand final tickets all got one," he said.

But non-competing clubs, particularly poorer ones, needed the tickets to secure their sponsors, he said. "The clubs have a huge challenge every year to raise enough money just to stay afloat, just to keep going."