THE BEST on ground in the Australian Football Hall of Fame Tribute Match will receive the Allen Aylett Medal, the league has announced.

Tickets for the May 10 match at the MCG went on sale on Wednesday, with Hall of Fame Legends Bob Skilton and Peter Hudson presented with the very first tickets at a ceremony held at the ground.

Announcing the naming of the medal, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson paid tribute to the contribution of Aylett, who oversaw a crucial period in the game’s evolution as president of the VFL from 1977 to 1984.

“Under Allen’s reign, the grand final was televised live into Melbourne for the very first time,” Anderson said.

“The first grand final parade was held, we had the first grand final pre-match entertainment, matches were played in Sydney and Brisbane, matches were played on Sundays … VFL Park was expanded and policies of ground rationalisation were pursued.

“Importantly, also, the Swans were relocated to Sydney.

“But perhaps for us in this context, as the man who the medal will be named after for the best of the best of the best in this game, Allen was instrumental in perhaps the most significant move in VFL/AFL in the last 100 years: securing the future of the game by the election of an independent AFL commission. This was absolutely crucial to the foundation of today’s national competition.”

Anderson was delighted to be able to hand over the first tickets to Skilton and Hudson.

“These two men were absolute champions of their time and they stand as champions of any era,” he said.

“In this game on May 10 our 50 best players will gather for the one and only time to pay tribute to all the greats of our game.”

Aylett will be on hand to present the medal to the best player on the day from either the Dream Team or Victoria.

“At my age it’s certainly worthwhile waiting for. I’m thrilled to bits,” Aylett said.

“[The game] should be a ripper ... we’ve got the best 50 players in the country and all of them will have their club’s support, which to me is just a tremendous breakthrough.”

The Victorian side will be coached by Mark Thompson, assisted by Bomber legend Kevin Sheedy. Thompson’s 2007 grand final counterpart, Mark Williams, will coach the Dream Team with the assistance of Neale Daniher.

Brisbane power forward Jonathan Brown will skipper the Vics, with current All-Australian skipper Andrew McLeod to lead the Dream Team.

Richmond forward Matthew Richardson and Geelong premiership hero Paul Chapman attended Wednesday’s ceremony and both were hopeful of winning a place in their respective teams.

“Any player will tell you it’s just a great opportunity to play with and against the best players. I’m definitely hoping I can play for the Dream Team,” Richardson said.

“If I was to get the opportunity I would be absolutely pumped to get out there with all the other great players in the competition.”

Chapman joked that he would need to either start being extra nice to his coach or trip Jimmy Bartel or Gary Ablett over at training in order to get a game that will likely be played in front of a full house.

“To pull on the big V for anybody is something special,” Chapman said.

“The [crowd noise] is amazing, it’s something you dream about but even then you can never really understand the full measure of how loud it is.”