THE ABC enjoyed a ratings bonanza on Saturday afternoon with more than 90,000 Melbourne viewers tuning in to watch Gold Coast debutant Karmichael Hunt face the Coburg Tigers at Craigieburn's Highgate Recreation Reserve.

The rugby league convert drew the biggest audience for a VFL game this year, with the figures nearly two-and-a-half times larger than the season average.

The next best audience was in round one when almost 66,000 tuned in to watch Collingwood versus Williamstown. 

VFL CEO Peter Schwab said the game provided terrific promotional value for the competition.

"There was certainly an enormous media interest in the game and the crowd out at Craigieburn was excellent - over 4000 people," he told afl.com.au.

"From a VFL perspective, that's a great crowd and a real positive from that point of view, and for Coburg footy club because it was their home game and they had a bit of a financial windfall.

"As for TV, the ABC had a real bonus with about double what we've been getting, which is a terrific result."

The Tigers won Saturday's match by 47 points but the interest was clearly centred around Hunt's first game.

After two early goals and a handful of decent tackles, his involvement dried up as the Tigers edged their way in front. His afternoon ended at three-quarter time when cramp got the better of him.

Afterwards the 24-year-old said it was a relief to get his first game out of the way, even if it was somewhat of a quiet start.

"It's been a year since I signed on the dotted line. I kicked a few goals and I didn't manage to touch the ball too much but it was great to finally play with the boys," he said.

"I definitely feel a lot better after playing that game. It's in the bag now and I'm just going to move forward, watch the vision and get better.

"In terms of structure, I struggled a bit, knowing where to be and what to do at times, but overall, I thought I wasn't going too bad out there but I'm sure 'Bluey' (coach Guy McKenna) will tell me otherwise. The coaches can tell me where to improve."

Meanwhile, AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou says the GWS's recruitment of NRL star Israel Folau has already proved to be a marketing goldmine with the amount of attention his signing has generated.

"I think the latest report we got was that the Israel Folau publicity generated in excess of about $9 million of publicity, which you can measure and cost," he said on SEN radio.

"If we were to spend $2 million promoting AFL in NSW and Queensland it probably wouldn't get a blip on the radar, to be quite truthful.

"There's certainly a lot of awareness around GWS because of Folau, so from that perspective we are pleased.

"We haven't won the battle, we've always said it's a long haul, we're going to have to do more than just attract publicity around Israel Folau."

Folau signed a four-year deal with the incoming franchise earlier this month.

Gold Coast will enter the competition next season while GWS will play in the VFL before its AFL debut in 2012.

For more information on Gold Coast and its developing list, visit www.goldcoastfc.com.au.