The Good, Bad & Ugly of Rugby League Grand Final Entertainment

The Good, Bad & Ugly of Rugby League Grand Final Entertainment

Dylan Leach

You can always recap the bravery of those who have won the Clive Churchill Medal, reflect on the brutal battles between the last two teams standing on Rugby League’s grandest of day and there’s always the discussion about what is the greatest Grand Final of all time.

But we ain’t doing that.

Instead, we’re proud to give you our in-depth analysis of just what has been the good, bad and ugly in pre-game entertainment at the Winfield Cup/ARL/NRL Grand Finals from over the years.

We go deep into the archives to bring you this comprehensive list of what has constituted “entertainment” on Grand Final day..

There’s no stopping the code wars, and many would argue that the AFL has jumped the gun in the Grand Final entertainment stakes of recent years, however, Rugby League has delivered some beauties over the years.

After Katy Perry rocked the MCG last Saturday, The Kid LAROI will be doing his best for Rugbah Leeg in where he’ll hopefully just sing the hits like “stay” and “without you” but it’s unlikely that Justin Bieber will make a cameo.

Kid LAROI actually grew up a League fan so that also helps his cause for playing at the Grand Final.

2023 – Tina Turner Tribute

Given her connection with the game, Tina Turner, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 83 had to be celebrated at the Grand Final.

The cast of Tina – The Tina Turner Musical did the tribute justice and got everyone up and about prior to last year’s epic decider.

 

 

 

2020 – Amy Shark

Amy Shark did a great job prior to last time Storm and Penrith met in the decider, sang the hits and the cameo from the Farris boys from INXS was good given the circumstances.

2019 – One Republic

While not exactly re-inventing the wheel, One Republic were largely well received for their efforts in 2019.

It was short, simple and included a cover of Beyonce’s Halo.

Admittedly there were some sound issues and One Republic’s music doesn’t exactly evoke the same sort of rev up emotion that Queen would but on the plus side, they weren’t what everyone was talking about after the game.

Safe to say after Tones & I plus Dean Lewis at the AFL, rugby league fans took the opportunity to sink the boot in what they thought was a superior performance.

Twitter, being what it is, saw some fans insisted on playing the contrarian.

And some just held firm in their beliefs.

2018 – Gang of Youths 

A decent, popular and relevant rock band perform prior to the game.

Makes perfect sense.

Gang of Youths simply got the job done at the 2018 Grand Final.

Well, we thought Gang of Youths got the job done but former Carlton/Brisbane AFL player Brendan Fevola wasn’t that impressed.

2017 – Macklemore

US rapper Macklemore sang his pro-same-sex marriage song Same Love at the NRL grand final with the big screens at ANZ Stadium saying “equality for all” as rainbow-coloured fireworks exploded behind him.

During the time of the plebiscite, it pissed off some No vote campaigners but no one really cared what they thought.

It was an outstanding effort.

2015 – Cold Chisel 

Chisel and Barnsey sang nothing but the hits followed by one of the most epic Grand Finals of all-time with the Cowboys v Broncos golden point decider.

Ticks all the boxes for a great Grand Final day!

2013 – Jessica Mauboy and Ricky Martin

Jessica Mauboy has been given the new Tina Turner type role in recent years and she’s really lived up to it.

This combination with Ricky Martin was an excellent performance all round.

2010 – Jessica Mauboy

In what was Jessica Mauboy’s first NRL Grand Final hitout, this was an outstanding debut on Rugby Leauge’s biggest stage.

2007 – Hoodoo Gurus 

The Hoodoos were excellent with their iconic adaptation of “That’s My Team” from their hit “What’s My Scene.”

The Bad.

The Met Orchestra – 2011

A controversial call, but getting the Met Orchestra to play Fanfare for the Common Man (which most readers will know as the Channel 7 Sports Theme) to a montage of highlights was a bit – meh.

Perhaps it’s because they didn’t do the Emmerson, Lake and Plamer version that made me put it in the bad category.

1999 – Vanessa Amorosi, Human Nature and Hugh Jackman

This is yet again a controversial call, but let’s face it these entertainers weren’t there to rock Rugby League, it was clearly an audition to get a gig at the Sydney Olympics and it was a bit lame.

Sorry, Hugh.

1991- Elvis Impersonator

Clearly, budget cuts had hit the NSWRL hard for the pre-game entertainment so they settled for an Elvis impersonator that would normally perform at a Leagues Club.

He was actually ok.

1985 -Rock Eisteddfod and Marcia Hinds 

Just kids waving flags for the good part of 30-minutes before the icon that is Marcia Hinds singing about the children being our future.

 

The Ugly 

 

2008 – John Stevens BBQ

WTF? He did about as well as Melbourne Storm did that day.

2002 – Billy Idol

The power didn’t work. The clip speaks for itself.

1995 – The Launch of Optus Vision 

In what was the final of the old Winfield Cup when the Super League war in full-swing, the Pay TV revolution was on in Australia and Optus Vision was launched in spectacular fashion, and by spectacular, we mean a blow-up TV almost collapsing and potentially

It was almost symbolic of the state of the off-field game at the time.

 

1986 – Cast of Neighbours 

Channel 10 was the official broadcaster of Rugby League back in 1986 and saw fitting to have the cast of its highest rating show Neighbours to completely butcher the National Anthem.

League Immortal Ray Price wasn’t impressed.

Simply The Best 

1993 – Tina Turner

You can’t have a blog about Rugby Leauge entertainment without the late, great Tina Turner and Simply The Best.

It’s not good, bad or ugly – because it was simply the best.

When Turner passed away in 2023, tributes flowed from the Rugby League community given her connection with the sport, so much so that Channel 9 devoted the start of their Thursday Night Footy coverage to pay tribute.

 

…and let’s not forget that Barnsey can belt it out when required. Here’s hoping he’s back on the touring scene first and back on Grand Final day in the near future.