Footy fans were rather unanimous with their thoughts on the AFL’s halftime entertainment display.
After American rock band Kiss kicked off proceedings before the opening bounce, fans were treated to a spectacular opening half of footy.
The high emotion of those two quarters was however quickly swept aside as Hunter and Collectors front man Mark Seymour and Kate Miller-Heidke took to the stage.
Instead of a high-octane performance, the duo went down the softer acoustic route which went down like a lead balloon.
Fans watching on unleashed online over the display.
CODE Sports Lachlan McKirdy wrote: “Why was it so slow. Just play it like the original, classic for a reason.”
News Corps Emily Benammar wrote: “They haven’t nailed the half time thing have they.”
Those were the tame responses, some fans really went to town on Seymour and Miller-Heidke for providing a major blunder on the day.
One user wrote: “Wtf is this? Mark Seymour ruining his own song. f***ing horrible.”
Another wrote: “Mark Seymour is incredible. These songs are bangers. is a horrible misread though. They’re deadset playing background music at a wedding as to not scare the brides grandmother.”
A third added: “Why is this the worst version in history of the Holy Grail?? It’s Mark Seymour, it should be smoking. Jesus someone pull the plug.”
A fourth wrote: “Kate Miller-Heidke making AFL grand final history. Unfortunately more of a Meatloaf type of history.”
KISS put on the biggest production the AFL Grand Final has ever seen — but many were far from impressed.
The iconic American rockers were the headline act before the AFL Grand Final and belted out their tunes from a stage in the centre of the MCG, after the show started with an orchestra staged on top of the roof of the venue.
The star-studded act bucked the trend of appearing to win over the majority of fans on social media — following on from Robbie Williams’ hit performance before the 2022 Grand Final.
The AFL was widely criticised for going with such an old-school act, but the veteran performers, led by rock god Gene Simmons, showed they were still capable of putting on a show for a live stadium audience.
The league was last month forced to scramble after Crowded House officially pulled out 54 days out from the season finale.
It turns out the AFL knew what it was doing.
“Just about as good as it gets the Telstra pre-game entertainment,” Channel 7’s Hamish McLachlan said.
“A world-class act for the world’s best game. That was something else. Hope you enjoyed that as much at home as the 100,000-odd here at the MCG did. The a massive thanks to Mushroom Events. I’m told that was the biggest staging and production for an Australian sporting event outside of the Olympics and Comm Games ever. Huge effort.
“It was unbelievable. What a thrill for all these KISS disciples.”