Sydney’s AFL cost-of-living allowance (COLA) is set to be killed off on Tuesday and Collingwood say such a move would be doing the Swans a favour.

AFL premiers in 2012 and preliminary finalists last season, Sydney have outraged rivals by managing to recruit star forwards Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin from Adelaide and Hawthorn in the past two years.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire last year described the COLA as a rort.

AFL heavyweights were meeting in Adelaide on Tuesday, with the 9.8 per cent COLA recevied by the Swans and Greater Western Sydney high on the agenda.

The AFL Commission is expected to announce a rapid phasing-out of the allowance for the Swans, although expansion club GWS will continue to benefit from it.

McGuire says this would be a victory for commonsense.

“That’s all I’ve ever fought for, is for clubs to have the opportunity to compete and not have a boat race and not have people’s careers ruined because of the AFL or whoever is manipulating the competition,” McGuire told SEN Radio on Tuesday.

“Every team should have the opportunity to be able to compete and then if you’re smart enough and good enough, you win.”

McGuire is less enthusiastic about the AFL’s push for a tax on richer clubs to boost strugglers.

“I’ve been fighting for the poorer clubs to be able to have 100 per cent of the salary cap paid,” he said.

“Once you’ve actually got an even playing field for the game itself, the money doesn’t really come into it.

“You look after the clubs as required, as a business plan of the AFL.

“We’re sort of heading that way a little bit at the moment, probably taking too much of an impost on the more successful clubs.”

McGuire says the departure later this year of AFL chief Andrew Demetriou is an opportunity for the league to do some soul-searching.

“We’re going to have a big meeting today in Adelaide,” McGuire said.

“It’s time for a few clubs to pull their heads in and start actually putting in to the competition.

“I’m talking about some of the middle-ranked clubs that have been going up and down on the one spot for a while who should be doing better.

“It’s time for them to actually kick in to the competition and for a few clubs to pull their heads in and stop cheating and burning the competition to the ground every other year.”

While McGuire didn’t name clubs, the Essendon supplements scandal, accusations of tanking at Melbourne and Adelaide’s Tippett salary cap drama have dominated the headlines in recent years.

“Today probably clubs will get away with everything over the last 10 years because we’ll wipe the slate clean,” McGuire said.

“I’ve had enough of … clubs who have systematically rorted the system and on numerous occasions.”