{"id":833312,"date":"2026-07-30T11:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833312\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:29:11","slug":"afl-2026-collingwood-magpies-and-geelong-cats-run-out-minutes-before-start-of-game-break-warm-up-tradition-kernkraft-400-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833312\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Collingwood Magpies and Geelong Cats run out minutes before start of game, break warm up tradition, Kernkraft 400, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collingwood and Geelong unveiled their \u201cbanger\u201d pre-game initiative on Thursday night,<\/a> which saw them run out on-field to warm up significantly later than usual.<\/p>\n

In a radical change to the traditional AFL warm-up routine, both clubs ran through their respective banners just minutes before the opening siren in an entertaining twist for a packed-out MCG crowd.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was the Magpies who ran out onto the ground first, bypassing their usual club anthem for a remix of \u2018Heads Will Roll\u2019 by Protostar; a tune adopted in internet meme approximately nine years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the entertainment industry here. Even warming up in the dark is a little bit weird as well,\u201d three-time Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt told Fox Footy as the hosts warmed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve only got a couple of minutes before the ball goes up!<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the moments as an ex-player where you sort of wish you were out there and involved in something like this. A good track as well from the Cats!\u201d<\/p>\n

The song Riewoldt was referring to is \u2018Kernkraft 400\u2019, by Zombie Nation, an iconic anthem most famously tied to American college football side Penn State.<\/p>\n

Given the coin toss also occurs just minutes before the first ball-up, the captains from both sides met in the changerooms pre-game to decide which team would have first way on the end they want to kick to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is really exciting. Another new innovation!\u201d two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King said before both teams ran out. <\/p>\n

The initiative was warmly praised online, noting the entertainment for fans in this instance has merit above almost everything <\/p>\n

else.<\/p>\n

At quarter time, Geelong led Collingwood by four goals, before kicking nine of the first 10 majors for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two-minute warm-up\u2019s dead for Collingwood. They\u2019re not doing that again … chuck that one in the trash can!\u201d Riewoldt added tongue-in-cheek after the Cats\u2019 ninth goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood and Geelong unveiled their \u201cbanger\u201d pre-game initiative on Thursday night, which saw them run out on-field to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-833312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}