I have friends in Victoria and this is exactly how they think...plus they struggle to work out the difference between League and Union.
I work with two victorians, both love sport and in particular AFL. They know all of the league players, who is good and who isnt. They quite like the game, especially when its played like parra and a few other sides play it in an open attacking style. I think taking a comment of a victorian that is clearly biased and intent on ruling the world with their sport is kind of dangerous. League is doing vastly better in victoria than most people think, the junior system is flourishing, crowds for the storm have been good and there are signs that the people of melbourne have taken to their side a hell of a lot more than sydney folk have taken to the transplanted swans organisation. So what if a few people have no idea of the difference between league and union, we are making headway into the heart of AFL territory and for every two that have NFI about league there is another one prepared to look at it.