The Collingwood and Port Adelaide presidents came together to speak at a leadership lunch at the MCG on Friday, discussing the state of the game and the challenges clubs were facing in 2014.
McGuire told the audience it had been "a bad year" and "everyone's agitated at the moment", with crowds down in Victoria by an average of 4,000 compared to last season.
Collingwood's average crowd figure is down from 53,754 in 2013 to 51,921 this season.
After drawing just 41,486 people to their round 18 clash against Adelaide – the club's lowest crowd against the Crows at the MCG since 2000 – the Magpies are allowing fans to bring a friend for free to Sunday's twilight clash against the Power at the MCG.
Port Adelaide has enjoyed a spike in its average crowd, from 27,035 in 2013 to 34,711 after the highly successful move to Adelaide Oval, with fans flocking to the new venue.
Koch said clubs were not competing when it came to improving the entertainment on offer at their own home games and they could collaborate on ways to lift crowd numbers.
"We all should be learning from each other … the world's so grumpy these days and we're at each other all the time," Koch said.
"Footy has got to be fun. Bringing the fun back into the footy has been one of the pillars of what we've been doing for the last two years and it's now reflected in the attendances we get at Adelaide Oval.
"That home game experience is something we can swap ideas on and probably save a lot of money by being able to take elements of each other's [plans]."
McGuire agreed and said clubs needed to "stand side by side for the benefit of football".
"Sometimes it sounds like we're all punching on, but we're not," he said.
"There has been a lot of negativity this year, and probably in some cases I've driven some of it because of the angst I've had at various stages.
"But I'm really confident that football is going to be great again."
While crowds are trending up at Adelaide Oval, there is concern around the stadium deal in place for Port Adelaide and the Crows, and a review chaired by AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is underway.
Koch said there had been "an enormous amount of good will at the moment from all parties to sort it out".
He said the clubs were chasing a similar stadium deal to that enjoyed by MCG tenant clubs, which receive 70 cents from every dollar made on match days.
"The previous stadium deal at AAMI broke Port Adelaide … Port Adelaide would not be around today if AAMI Stadium and that agreement had continued," he said.
"We've got to fight for what's ours.
"South Australian tax payers have put a lot of money into Adelaide Oval to support the two AFL clubs, and to get a best practice stadium deal.
"I'm confident we're going to get that."
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