FRIDAY'S Grand Final parade through the city is in danger of being cancelled if predicted wild weather hits Melbourne.
AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou said on Thursday he was praying for fine weather and keeping a close eye on the radar in the build up to Saturday's Grand Final.
But a final call on whether the parade goes ahead will not be made until 30 minutes before its scheduled midday start time.
In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, the AFL stressed plans for the parade had not changed and were confident it would go ahead.
Rain and hail is forecast to sweep across Melbourne on Friday and Saturday, also throwing Saturday's revamped Grand Final entertainment into jeopardy.
A crowd of 100,000 people is expected to descend on the city for the parade.
"Obviously if the rain is too heavy and there's hail, that makes the parade difficult to proceed," Demetriou said at a press conference alongside Grand Final act The Temper Trap.
"All of the players want to participate in the parade. It's one of the great things that they get to be involved in and we don't want to deny 100,000 people the opportunity to watch the parade through the streets of Melbourne."
While the AFL has contingency plans in case of wet weather, Demetriou said there was not a lot the League could do in a big storm.
"It's pretty hard in a Toyota Hilux to put a roof on it overnight, I can tell you."
Admitting there was risk associated with making a late call on the parade - with thousands of fans already in the city 30 minutes before it starts - Demetriou said the League would do everything possible to make it go ahead.
The horrendous forecast is also causing major concern for the Grand Final entertainment on Saturday.
AFL chief operating officer Gillon McLachlan said there was a chance the weather could dent plans, including a concert by headline act The Temper Trap.
"We would obviously love it to be sunny and 26 degrees. We're monitoring the forecast every couple of hours. It changes a little bit, but I think I've heard the word hail mentioned once or twice. It will be what it will be," McLachlan told AFL.com.au.
"In the end, if it's too wet to have the concert hopefully people will understand.
"We're very optimistic … we've got a great day of activity lined up and we're confident everything will push ahead."
Legendary Australian artist Paul Kelly is poised to perform before the game, and in a new move, The Temper Trap will take to the stage at half-time.
A live concert featuring Kelly and The Temper Trap at the MCG is set to follow the game in post-match proceedings.
Meanwhile, after the success of last week's twilight preliminary final there has been speculation the AFL could shift the Grand Final to the 5.15pm timeslot.
McLachlan said it would be something the AFL discussed later in the year.
"Generally I like the twilight slot. It amuses me that when we played it for the prelim final last week, a lot of people were negative about the timeslot without any real reason, just because people don't like change," McLachlan said.
"I have always liked the slot but I don’t think that's any precursor to the Grand Final one way or the other. We'll have a look at it as we do every year, next year."
Ahead of the Grand Final, McLachlan joined sports minister Hugh Delahunty and Victoria Police superintendent Rod Wilson in urging fans to avoid scalping tickets.
"We're monitoring all websites and working with the state government and Victoria police on this issue," he said.