To celebrate the latest Neds: Behind the Music – Freo Heave Ho we’ve decided to rank all 18 of the AFL club songs from best to worst.
The story behind “the little club song that could” is a celebration of club identity, history and democracy after Eskimo Joe tried to steal Perth jingle king Kenny Walther’s Freo Way to Go – but the members weren’t having it.
Let’s get on with our Power Rankings of AFL Club songs.
(1) Brisbane Lions
As the proud sponsor of the mighty Brisbane Lions, our decision to make the Brisbane Lions club song top of the pops in this list is totally fair and balanced.
30,000 Lions members plus 66.99 million French can’t be wrong with this tune.
We also expect this song to be ringing around the MCG come the last Saturday in September.
It was also the anthem for the old Royboys and that’s good enough for us.
The Brisbane Bears’ original song was also a deadset banger and even had its own video clip.
(2) Richmond
Don’t kid yourself, every time you hear this song you can’t help but join in with the “YELLOW AND BLACK.”
Up until recently, the sounds of “Oh we’re from Tigerland” was the only thing that kept Richmond fans going.
The club opted to change the classic and iconic Fable singers version due to a historical mistake fixing the “Risking head and skin” to the proper lyrics of “Risking head and shin.”
Many fans didn’t like the weakened down version and it the Fable Singers version was brought back with the proper lyrics spliced in.
(3) GWS Giants
Many new clubs tend to opt for crappy modern-sounding theme songs, but the GWS Giants got theirs done perfectly.
Written and performed by Harry Angus from The Cat Empire, the BIG BIG SOUND took the internet by storm in the lead-up to the 2019 Grand Final, until the Giants lost the Grand Final to Richmond by 89 points.
(4) Melbourne
The great thing about the Melbourne theme song is that it doesn’t mention Melbourne or the Demons in it, therefore, any team in any sport that has red and blue as their colours can use it.
It has been topping the charts over the off-season after the Dees broke their 57-year drought
It’s also pretty good to burst out after a big win.
Thank goodness the merger with Hawthorn never went ahead in 1996 or we could be stuck with this monstrosity
(5) Sydney
The Swans can claim the fifth spot based purely on the fact it has a Banjo solo in it.
Sydney opted for a “fresh version” of the club song recently, but the old South Melbourne one is still bloody good.
There was also “Up there for Sydney” doing the rounds for many years at Swans home games.
(6) Essendon
Although this song has not been played concluding a finals match that the club has participated in since 2004, See the Bombers fly up is a proper footy team song with a catchy tune.
Credit where credit is due.
Best result Essendon has had all year.
(7) North Melbourne
The North song is pretty iconic and the “Hearts and Hearts” bit that the players sing isn’t actually in the recording that everyone knows.
The club did get Tim Rogers to record a version of the song that had all the verses that would be played when the team ran out onto the ground.
There remains a debate if “North Melbourne is the team that plays to win for you and me” or “North Melbourne will be premiers just you wait and see”
(8) Carlton
The Da-Da-Da-Da-Da intro to the Carlton theme song is as iconic as the song itself and Blues fans and players can really belt this one out after a big win.
The 1999 Preliminary Final is a good example.
(9) Geelong
The Cats went with a bit of class in this one basing it on the Toréador song in the Bizet – Carmen opera and it’s made for a solid club anthem over the years.
Much like the Australian national anthem, there’s also a second verse that’s never sung and while the club has attempted a recording with it in it, they’ve stuck with just the first verse.
The Freo theme song has had its moments and the fact the clubs members opted to keep it over a possible Eskimo Joe replacement back in 2011 speaks volumes that the Dockers fans go by the mantra – it might be a crap song, but it’s OUR song. We respect that.
(13) St.Kilda
There’s nothing wrong with the Saints song, it gets the job done and on brand.
Also, this video from a few years back is a reason why the Saints are low on our club song rankings.
The Saints also had “I do like to beside the seaside” once upon a time as their club song.
(14) Port Adelaide
This ranking will no doubt cause some Port Adelaide Aggression amongst the Power fans reading this but Port go low on the rankings mostly because of this bloke

(15) Adelaide
What on earth is this “KNOWN AS THE ADELAIDE CROWS” lyric?
It’s an ok footy song but has nothing on the original Crows anthem “HERE WE GO CAMRY CROWS”
(16) West Coast
Only released in 2020, the West Coast Eagles have re-jigged their song with some assistance from Birds of Tokyo with some new lyrics from what has been basically an ad-jingle for the good part of 20 years.
It sounds like a Birds of Tokyo Song which is a good or bad thing depending on your opinion of the band.
The original Eagles song, which was played after their 1992 and 1994 Grand Final wins is still the best West Coast has had to offer.
(17) Gold Coast Suns
If the Gold Coast Suns theme song had a contract, it too would request a trade to another club.
(18) Baby Shark
(19) Dance Monkey
(20) Up Up Cronulla
(21) What does the Fox Say?
(22) Agadoo
(23) The Fast Food Song
(24) Star Trekkin’
(25) Crazy Frog
(26) Collingwood
Basically, we’d rather hear songs 18-25 than Good old Collingwood Forever. This is a perfectly reasonable justification.
Shout out to Dom Sheed for preventing it from being played after Grand Final day in 2018.
(10) Hawthorn
Ride those bumps with a grin.
Hawthorn loses points in the club song rankings because of the brown and gold colour scheme, not they’d care.
(11) Western Bulldogs
Sons of the West was top of the pops in September 2016 when everyone got on the bandwagon in one of the most memorable finals series from any team in memory.
It’s not amazing and it’s not awful and isn’t as catchy as Sons of the ‘Scray but it gets the job done.
The Dogs also recorded a version called “Daughters of the West” for their AFLW team.
The Bulldogs also believe they lay claim to Freed from desire
🐶 Absolute scenes! The Dogs are freed from desire!
— ABC SPORT (@abcsport) September 12, 2021
The Western Bulldogs were going off after their huge prelim win. SOUND UP 🔊
Courtesy Twitter: @CraigPtyLtd)
📰 Full sport coverage: https://t.co/u7jcIDGCrX
📩 Sports newsletter: https://t.co/pA3fYgbMqA pic.twitter.com/hE5v0thH3D
(12) Fremantle
The Freo theme song has had its moments and the fact the clubs members opted to keep it over a possible Eskimo Joe replacement back in 2011 speaks volumes that the Dockers fans go by the mantra – it might be a crap song, but it’s OUR song. We respect that.
(13) St.Kilda
There’s nothing wrong with the Saints song, it gets the job done and on brand.
Also, this video from a few years back is a reason why the Saints are low on our club song rankings.
The Saints also had “I do like to beside the seaside” once upon a time as their club song.
(14) Port Adelaide
This ranking will no doubt cause some Port Adelaide Aggression amongst the Power fans reading this but Port go low on the rankings mostly because of this bloke

(15) Adelaide
What on earth is this “KNOWN AS THE ADELAIDE CROWS” lyric?
It’s an ok footy song but has nothing on the original Crows anthem “HERE WE GO CAMRY CROWS”
(16) West Coast
Only released in 2020, the West Coast Eagles have re-jigged their song with some assistance from Birds of Tokyo with some new lyrics from what has been basically an ad-jingle for the good part of 20 years.
It sounds like a Birds of Tokyo Song which is a good or bad thing depending on your opinion of the band.
The original Eagles song, which was played after their 1992 and 1994 Grand Final wins is still the best West Coast has had to offer.
(17) Gold Coast Suns
If the Gold Coast Suns theme song had a contract, it too would request a trade to another club.
(18) Baby Shark
(19) Dance Monkey
(20) Up Up Cronulla
(21) What does the Fox Say?
(22) Agadoo
(23) The Fast Food Song
(24) Star Trekkin’
(25) Crazy Frog
(26) Collingwood
Basically, we’d rather hear songs 18-25 than Good old Collingwood Forever. This is a perfectly reasonable justification.
Shout out to Dom Sheed for preventing it from being played after Grand Final day in 2018.