LIVE animals and Daryl Braithwaite’s 1990 anthem Horses will kick off the AFL season at the MCG on Thursday night.

Richmond has adopted the song as the centrepiece of its match-day entertainment for the AFL season opener.

Braithwaite will perform the song on stage as four horses gallop around the ground.

The song will be played again at quarter-time and three-quarter time, with the crowd encouraged to sing along in a mass karaoke performance.

Tigers CEO Brendon Gale confirmed today the move is linked to a marketing campaign by insurance agency Bingle — there is a Bingle billboard outside Punt Rd that shows Richmond players riding horses, but that seems unlikely before the first game of the season.

media_camera Is that we’ll see next Thursday?

Hawthorn has adopted the song as an unofficial anthem, with players belting it out after big wins including its past three premierships.

The Tigers’ pre-match entertainment until now has been low-key, using drummers to pump up the crowd before players take the field.

The idea revives memories of previous attempts at using live animals to entertain footy fans — in 1974 a circus animal was paraded around the boundary line during halftime of a North Melbourne v Collingwood at Arden St. The elephant was spooked by the crowd and briefly charged across the ground before being brought under control.

At the end of 2014 Brisbane floated towing a live lion in a cage around the Gabba before the idea was abandoned following fan outrage.

The Richmond plan hasn’t been well received by fans so far.

@BobbyBeaton16 @Richmond_FC unoriginal idea, crap song and tacky entertainment.. sounds like the superbowl alright. — Chris Hearn (@_ChrisHearn) March 18, 2016

People thought having hovercraft was bad wtf are Richmond thinking lol — Daniel (@kobeowns) March 18, 2016

We've approved Richmond's new clash jumper pic.twitter.com/yoXv6KA3GJ — AFL Integrity Unit (@IntegrityUnit) March 18, 2016

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