The biggest day of the football season began on Saturday morning with a sold-out North Melbourne Grand Final breakfast at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten were on hand to trade barbs, while AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan was full of jokes in his short address to the 1400-strong audience.

There was a big general sporting flavour too, with three-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Damien Oliver and recently retired world champion Australian Diamonds netballer Julie Corletto featuring.

Corletto was named the Sports Personality of the Year, while Brisbane Lions triple premiership star Jonathan Brown was crowned the Media Personality of the Year.

McLachlan got plenty of laughs when he made light of the Australian political scene, suggesting there needed to be "an interchange cap on prime ministers", referencing the fact Turnbull was our country's fifth leader in five years.

The political leaders also drew laughs - for different reasons.

Turnbull walked down the blue carpet entrance to Billy Joel's tune of Second Wind, while Shorten entered to Taylor Swift's hit Shake It Off.

But the main theme of the day was the approaching contest between Hawthorn and West Coast.

The clubs were represented by respective presidents Andrew Newbold (Hawks) and Alan Cransberg.

For the record, Turnbull thinks West Coast will win its first flag since 2006, while Shorten tipped Hawthorn to make it a hat-trick of premierships.