When there are floods in Queensland, the cost of bananas rises. When the Australian dollar depreciates, fuel prices increase. It's first principle economics, basic supply and demand. Market forces at play.

That's why in theory variable pricing for AFL games makes sense. In a free market, the price of a seat to watch Geelong v Hawthorn at the MCG on Monday, would and should be more expensive than the same seat at the Melbourne-Gold Coast encounter at the same venue the previous afternoon. Jake Spencer and Sean Lemmens do not have the same box office appeal as Tom Hawkins and Sam Mitchell. Premium football ought to cost a premium.

In most marketplaces, there would be nothing objectionable about removing a premium with stock remaining and the item imminently about to become worthless. On that basis the AFL decided only hours before the first bounce to allow club members to scan their cards and enter the MCG, removing the need to purchase a reserved seat for the Cats-Hawks blockbuster.

The problem however is that passionate and long-standing football supporters do not view a match ticket in the same light as they view a banana. People do not forge emotional connections with bananas. They do not get tattoos and purchase memorabilia to commemorate the opening of their favourite greengrocer. Even former Geelong president Frank Costa, a man linked to both football and fruit, would concede this point.

The approach taken by AFL commercial operations manager Darren Birch is understandable. He is trying gamely to explain the new system as best as possible. Birch has promoted the benefits to fans in 2014, such as the fact that a top-tier seat to the Anzac Day MCG blockbuster has fallen in price this year from $36 to $25. He vehemently defended the last-minute Easter Monday call as "the right thing to do" in order to allow as many members as possible to see the game. And with a season-high 80,222 through the turnstiles to witness what proved to be an enthralling addendum to the ''Kennett's curse'' era, the decision deserves credit at least in one respect.

Yet the very fact that some fans ended up getting in for no added charge, while so many others had already paid over and above the cost of their membership packages to attend, is troubling for many. It further undermines supporter confidence in the game's administration, and whether in fact it does have the fans' interests at heart.

In the US, ticket prices routinely vary depending on the marketability of the visiting team on any given night. This is not a prospect however that Australian crowds seem awfully willing to stomach. With an already highly nuanced ticketing and membership system in Melbourne - one encompassing MCC members, AFL members, club members of varying status and general admission theatregoers - chopping and changing the grading of matches as well makes it practically impossible for the average fan to follow and comprehend.

"We've now got people with reserved seats being confused by the commentary, which is not accurate at all," Birch said.

"That's where I feel about a lady being worried about her Anzac Day [reserved] seat, but she's got nothing to be worried about whatsoever."

Be that as it may, the league has to an extent made it's own bed in this case. When things become hard to understand, it becomes harders still to trust, with public discontent an inevitable consequence. Nor is the situation assisted by a diminishing on-field spectacle, and TV-centric match starting times. Birch described MCG seating as "inventory". It is this sort of labelling, however business-savvy it may appear, that typifies the growing disconnect.

The AFL Fans Association is still fledgling, but rapidly finding voice and widespread support. Six volunteers collected almost 900 signatures of fans wanting variable pricing to be scrapped for 2015.

Five rounds into the season is probably still too soon to throw the baby out with the bathwater. But given that even a standout crowd of 80,000 was accompanied by supporter frustration, it seems the fans are struggling to adjust. Whether Birch and the AFL hold their nerve and stick by the new system remains to be seen. If public perception doesn't change soon, the criticism might just drive the league bananas.