THE GOOD news for the AFL's heartland is that what was shaping as the most dismal finals series in decades was saved by a classic grand final, fought out by two Victorian teams who looked headed for the scrapheap not so long ago.

Nine years ago, the Geelong Football Club was broke, in debt to the tune of more than $5 million and forced to launch a tin-rattling dinner at Kardinia Park, during which one guest speaker evoked the memory of Fitzroy. Three years earlier, Hawthorn almost merged with Melbourne.

The Hawks and the Cats have proved that solid administration, generous benefactors and some imaginative forward thinking can change the fortunes of football clubs. They are now two of the most powerful clubs in the AFL — on and off the field.

The bad news is that three other Victorian clubs have ended the season without a major sponsorship deal for 2009 in what can only be described as a terrifying international financial climate. Two of those — the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne — admit they are nowhere near reaching a new major financial partnership.

Only Richmond, which has a heads of agreement in place with a new major partner, is on the verge of an announcement, and that news has the Tigers and the AFL mightily relieved.

North Melbourne has lost Vodafone and that company now has no Melbourne-based AFL interest, but the Kangaroos have negotiated an agreement with Mazda worth about $1.8 million a year, so the pressure is off at Arden Street.

Surely it is now the responsibility of the game's governing body to step in and help find sponsors for Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs. Surely it is not enough to hand extra money to those clubs in 2009 through special distribution funds when the AFL's commercial department is so well serviced.

The clubs themselves see the AFL, Telstra Dome and the MCG as major competitors in the tough commercial market and the perfect response by the AFL would be not to simply work with the struggling clubs on a regular basis, but to step in now that massive new holes are looming in their budgets.

The AFL commission will meet tomorrow to look at the league's internal budgets.

Although the immediate past Melbourne administration becomes touchy whenever this is said, the commission remains unimpressed by that club's failure to make any financial headroad while taking extra money from the AFL in recent years.

Now the AFL says Melbourne has a board it has faith in and can work with. Given that the Demons fare so poorly from their relationship with the MCG via match returns — and they are not the only ones — and the AFL only this year appears to have sufficiently opened its eyes to the problem, it is incumbent upon the league to continue to help a club that is in so much trouble.

At present, Melbourne offers so little on-field hope that it struggled to lure players during trade week.

After all, AFL chief executive officer Andrew Demetriou has stated to all 16 clubs the AFL's support for 10 teams in Victoria, saying that without them the $750 million five-year broadcast rights deal would not have been made.

For years the clubs at Telstra Dome attempted to explain how poorly they fared from match days and for years the AFL played down those concerns.

The past St Kilda administration of Rod Butterss and Brian Waldron was ridiculed by the AFL's money men who used figures to support their argument. Now the AFL admits the clubs have been duped.

"The game's up," said Demetriou of how poorly Telstra Dome and the MCG treated their bread and butter — the AFL clubs — compared with other codes and more itinerant tenants. And yet Demetriou's administration does not appear to have taken any responsibility for not acting earlier. It is acting now to improve that situation, so why not step in and help Melbourne and the Bulldogs find a major sponsor?

The Bulldogs remain a conundrum. This year the club reached a preliminary final, spent most of the season in the top three and moved into an impressive new training facility, and had financing that has become the benchmark for at least four other Melbourne-based clubs.

The club, albeit after $1.7 million in special assistance, will make a profit of at least $800,000. That is a massive achievement. And yet, despite LeasePlan's decision to part with the club and announce it well before the finals, no serious new sponsor has come forward. Most disheartening.

The AFL has thrown itself wholeheartedly into expansion and vowed to plough as many men, women and millions of dollars as the job requires into the Gold Coast and western Sydney. If Demetriou is true to the words he delivered to the club presidents on the eve of the grand final, he should be doing the same for Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs as they continue to search for new names to stitch on their jumpers.