THE AFL has been left red faced after its main website went into meltdown, leaving readers confused after finding a strongly worded message regarding the AFL's most powerful man.

Scores of AFL fans were left bemused this afternoon after logging onto the main page to find this message: "Demetriou is Eddie's bitch", an apparent reference to AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou and Collingwood President Eddie McGuire.

Despite speculation the site was hacked, the AFL was forced to admit this afternoon that the message was published by an "opportunistic" member of the public who gained access to its systems.

"Internal procedures are being reviewed to ensure similar breaches do not occur," the AFL said in a statement.

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The message was visible for about 15 minutes.

"The page was disabled as soon as we were aware of it and fully restored with full security a short time later," the statement said.

"The breach was confined to a section of the AFL.com.au homepage and no personal or other information was accessible."

AFL spokesman James Tonkin confirmed there had been an issue and they were working with Telstra to investigate the glitch.

Originally published as AFL site hijacked with 'bitch' post