Aussie Rules has long history of footy gimmicks gone wrong

Source : ABC NEWS

Some blocked their ears while others dropped their jaws in disbelief, yet a surprising number cheered as if it didn’t take them back to one of the worst moments in Fremantle Football Club’s history.

During Freo’s AFLW match against Sydney last weekend, the club reprised Wharfie Time, a home-ground gimmick that includes playing the opening bars of AC/DC’s Hells Bells in a tight spot to spur the team on.

That was despite the recent AFL Grand Final where Wharfie Time was activated with just four minutes to go and what was supposed to be a moment of celebration for Freo — up 17 points and looking strong — instead spurred the Lions into a ravenous frenzy to steal the match.

With many a Freo supporter still blinking in surprise that anyone would play it again so soon, CEO Simon Garlick has since stated that Hells Bells will be back for the 2027 AFL season.

Footy has a history of crowd gimmicks, and with Wharfie Time’s future apparently set, it’s only fair to take a look back at other stunts AFL and VFL clubs have pursued — for better or worse.

The Crows’ power stance

The Adelaide Crows were the league’s minor premiers in 2017 and were expected to fly through the grand final against Richmond.

But after a strong season that didn’t need any gimmicks, they decided to introduce what became known as the power stance for the finals season.

During the national anthem, the team and coach Don Pyke stood in a rigid pose, arms down and facing the other team in an unwavering stare at the opposition that was probably supposed to be intimidating.

It was instead reminiscent, perhaps, of people freezing with horror as they realise they’re about to pass an unexpected bowel movement.

And while the Crows thumped the Giants and the Cats in their first two finals, it was a different story against the Tigers.

A young team enjoying their first grand final appearance in 35 years, they were in no mood for gimmicks and ended up beating the flag favourites by 48 points, going on to win three premierships in four years.

The Crows’ power stance was never seen again and it took the club nine years to win another final.

North Melbourne’s elephant

In 1978, North Melbourne Football Club made the bizarre decision to field a circus elephant at Arden Street Oval before its round five match against Collingwood.

The club said it had organised what it called a “special surprise” as a promotion for a local circus that was owned by pennant member Jack Allan.

It started well and, in front of more than 31,000 people, the elephant was ridden by a member of the cheer squad and led around the oval.

But when Collingwood ran onto the field and drew a loud roar from the crowd, the elephant got spooked and started to gallop.

Afraid it could crush dozens of people, police started moving them from the area until the handler calmed the pachyderm and the crisis was over without injury to animal or human.

North Melbourne managed to win that game by nine points, but the idea of an elephant for crowd entertainment was retired.

Carlton’s Betty Blue Hovercraft

In the 1990s, Carlton Football Club launched its own pre-game gimmick, a blue hovercraft ridden by Captain Carlton.

It came out onto the field during home games at Princes Park to rev up the crowd and was eventually retired in 1999.

But in 2015, Captain Carlton returned with a new hovercraft, dubbed Blue Betty, before the team’s round one match against Richmond.

He rode the machine as it tore around the MCG leaving a rooster tail of fireworks.

Carlton ended up losing the match by 27 points.

Things took a turn for the worse later that year when Blue Betty reportedly wasn’t allowed onto the Docklands stadium because of concerns for the turf, and Captain Carlton had to instead abseil from the roof.

Carlton lost that game to the Brisbane Lions, which had been winless until then. 

The following day the hovercraft flipped over on the Yarra River and had to be dragged to dry land.

Angry Anderson in a Batmobile

The AFL itself decided that for the grand final’s half-time entertainment in 1991, it would send singer Angry Anderson out onto the field with its own version of a Batmobile.

Sitting in the modified 1970 VG Valiant Coupe with champion marathon runner Robert de Castella, the now-late Anderson eventually belted out his hit song, Bound for Glory.

Unfortunately, it was an outing Anderson would probably rather forget.

He struggled to hear his backing track from the stands of Waverly Stadium, where the grand final was being played for the first and only time while renovations were underway at the MCG.

He also later said the straight-out exhaust of the Batmobile was so loud it was near-impossible to hear the music he was supposed to be singing along to.

History has not remembered the moment kindly, and the performance was mocked by an AFL sponsor in an advert nearly 20 years later.

A pig on the loose

Less of an official gimmick and instead a cheeky stunt, in 1993 a pig was let loose onto the goal square during the second quarter of the round 18 clash between St Kilda and Sydney at the SCG.

It had Plugga painted on one side and the number four on the other, and was rumoured to have been drafted by a Sydney Swans supporter who had earlier talked to players about getting in the head of legendary goal-kicker Tony “Plugger” Lockett, who was playing for The Saints at the time.

After running about the square to the delight of commentators while dodging attempts to catch it, the pig was eventually tackled to the ground by the Swans’ Darren Holmes.

However, the stunt had little effect because Lockett wasn’t even playing that day due to injury, and the Swans lost by 37 points.

But it may have impressed Plugger because he went on to play for Sydney, where he became club champion in 1995.

Crowd activations that work

Despite the disasters, some gimmicks have done wonders.

John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads continues to be sung by Brisbane Lions fans after every goal Charlie Cameron kicks at home, a moment that might induce cringe for the rest of us but clearly works for the Lions.

The club plays different songs for all its players after they kick a goal.

But considering the team is in the midst of a three-peat premiership dynasty, they have been kicking a lot of them, meaning those songs are probably off the playlist for everyone else.

The same could be said of Port Adelaide Football Club’s use of Never Tear Us Apart by INXS.

A reference to the club’s chip on its shoulder towards the SANFL for insisting it enter the AFL in 1997 as a separate entity to its traditional Magpies team, fans sing it before every home game.

That separation ended last decade, but the song still invokes great passion among the faithful, even if, for the rest of us, Andrew Farriss’s composition and Michael Hutchence’s lyrics may be ruined forever.

Time will tell if AC/DC’s Hells Bells will suffer the same fate, perhaps for Dockers fans most of all.

After all, the Lions’ premiership coach Chris Fagan said after the grand final that they had talked about Wharfie Time the previous day and had agreed that, should it be activated, they would use it to “flip the switch ourselves, and turn it on them” instead.

Hells Bells indeed.