If you were given a dollar for everyone who asked Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy for a selfie or an autograph at the MCG Friday night, or shouted "Go Storm" as he walked past, you would have enough money to buy something really pricey ... like a ticket to the AFL grand final.

The Storm, who play a preliminary final against Canberra on Saturday night, have marketed themselves, intuitively rather than purposefully, as a Melbourne team, rather than an NRL one.

The Giants, who play a preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs the same night, are positioned as an AFL team, rather than a Sydney one.

OK, the Swans, who moved north from Melbourne in 1982, have a lock on "Sydney's team", but the Giants are not perceived as representatives of what they cloyingly call "Greater Western Sydney."