“Incredibly difficult watch”: Channel 7 AFL season promotional video receives mixed reviews

Channel 7's AFL team has dropped a divisive promotional video for the upcoming 2026 season, starring all their big names.

Led by legendary sports commentator, Bruce McAvaney, the video takes place in a boardroom-like meeting, with a whiteboard indicating the season plan.

It comes a week after the broadcaster sacked Jason Bennett following 11 years with the network.

MORE: Outpouring of support comes for sacked Channel 7 commentator 

"Guys, now we know last year was special, but 2026 has got to be bigger and better," McAvaney opens with.

"What have you got for me? And remember, there's no such thing as a silly idea."

The promo includes Nick Riewoldt suggesting the team should introduce wearing turtle necks, "like, way more".

Kane Cornes' beef with Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge got a mention, with a bottle of water accompanied with the word 'beverage' offered to the media sensation.

"Hard pass," he responded.

Bruce says there's no such thing as a silly idea in the 2026 AFL commentary meeting.

Even though... pic.twitter.com/ceBf2hxuVF

— 7AFL (@7AFL) February 24, 2026

Home and Away royalty Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart, seemingly got confused with the letter combination, believing he should've been included in the A-F-L meeting.

Matthew and Jason Richardson were fighting for McAvaney's attention, but neither could get through.

There was even a cheeky dig at rival network, Fox Footy, which attempted to ban nicknames of media personalities and callers during the broadcast.

Also involved was Brian Taylor's pop-culture reference to AI website 'ChatGPT', but re-engineering it to say 'ChatGBT'.

"All of the feedback was, more Briannnnn in the coverage!" the former Pie said.

But how did the public view it?

One X (formerly known as Twitter) user responded saying that the comedic promotional videos should be left to Melbourne after their well-received season launch.

It’s time to #AwakenYourDemon in 2026 😈 Yeah, we’ve heard ya Demons Faithful.

📝 | https://t.co/JYxz1qVyNi pic.twitter.com/LXOP7DXk6s

— Melbourne Demons (@melbournefc) February 11, 2026

"Tried hard for the content and failed," one user posted.

Another said: "Incredibly difficult watch".

A keen observer also tagged Fireball co-host David King, saying "6:01", implying that Cornes has some explaining to do for his performance in the skit.