‘Have The Guts to Rethink This Decision’: Sarah Hanson-Young Blasts AFL For Snoop Dogg Booking

The AFL should drop Snoop like he’s hot.

That’s the line from Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who has called out the league for booking the US rapper as the pre-game entertainer at the 2025 grand final.

The Greens Senator used a Senate address to call for Snoop's removal from the high-profile spot next month at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and put the league on blast for not supporting local talent.

The Adelaide-based politician used the platform of her Senate address, and a followup post from her Instagram account, to brand Snoop a “slur merchant”.

The AFL “has decided, rather than putting on an Australian artist, they're gonna pay $2 million to play at the Grand Final," remarked Hanson-Young.

"The AFL is a cultural institution," she continued. And cultural institutions should back Australia's musicians and creative arts community.

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Speaking in the Senate, Hanson-Young also called foul on Snoop getting approved to play at the AFL’s flagship event, while Adelaide Crows forward Izak Rankine received a multiple-week suspension for making a homophobic slur.

“The irony is not lost on many of us that while Izak Rankine gets dumped, Snoop Dogg gets $2 million to play his misogynistic, homophobic music on our turf,” Hanson-Young continued.

The AFL missed an opportunity to support Australian artists, she added, many of them unable to be seen and heard above the 100 million-plus songs ingested into the main streaming platforms, or compete with the big budgets of major-label artists on both sides of the Atlantic. “We need investment in Australian and Aussie talent. We need investment in our music industry, and we need to say that if it’s an Aussie game, it’s an Aussie artist playing,” she declared.

Snoop was confirmed last month as the headliner for the pre-game entertainment at the AFL final, which kicks off September 27th at the MCG.

He’ll join a long list of international acts who’ve played in that spot, including Ed Sheeran, Sting, The Killers, Lionel Richie, Tom Jones, Meat Loaf, Bryan Adams and more.

"Have the guts to rethink this decision," she told the AFL.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon has defended the decision to book Snoop, who, in 2006, was banned from entering the UK following his role in a brawl at Heathrow Airport, and some years earlier presented a pornographic film.

“It is also important to remember that we engaged Snoop Dogg in 2025 as the person he is today,” he remarked. “He has spoken publicly about his past, he has changed, and today he is a grandfather, philanthropist, he helps rehabilitate youth and is a global entertainer who has performed at both the Super Bowl and the Olympic Closing Ceremony.”

Snoop is a living legend in the US, where he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; has published cookbooks; has three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and as many leader of the Billboard 200 chart; guides the Snoop Youth Football League (SYFL), which has produced numerous NFL players; and has performed at the Super Bowl.

In 2021, Snoop signed an exclusive, five-year touring deal with TEG MJR, the U.K.-based promotion arm of Australian live entertainment, ticketing and tech giant TEG.