Katy Perry had captured the attention of the country all week with a seemingly endless round of TV and radio appearances, speculation about what songs she would and wouldn’t sing at the AFL grand final, and who would join her for a duet. But what it all came down to in the end was the 15-minute pre-game set – and she delivered in spades with a best-on-ground performance.

It had been reported in some media outlets that Perry was being paid $5 million for this gig, and that she would sing five songs – a cool million bucks per tune. The AFL won’t reveal the actual figure, but well-placed sources told this masthead those reports were “wildly inaccurate” (as a reality check, when Robbie Williams performed two years ago, he was reportedly paid $1 million).

What is clear is she played a lot more than five songs, and whatever the AFL paid, it got a truckload of interest, coverage and exposure well beyond the show itself.

Perry’s hit-studded set was essentially an extended medley similar to the one she performed at the VMAs when being given a lifetime achievement award last month. It consisted of nine songs – or 10 if you include the cheeky sample of her recent single Woman’s World, which briefly played as she entered the stadium atop a silver chariot that some online wags likened to an inflated goon bag.

“Where’s all my Swans at? Where’s all my Lions at?” she asked, revving up the crowd. As the vehicle bobbed and bounced – it brought to mind a space-age update of Angry Anderson’s infamous Batmobile from 1991 but with worse suspension and also, with its billowing fabric vapour trail, the iconic bus scene from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – Perry somehow stayed mostly in tune and on song.

Daringly, she kicked off with Roar, a song she had threatened not to perform lest she be seen to be taking sides. “Louder than a lion, ’cause I am a champion, and you’re gonna hear me roar,” she sang. For Brisbane, it was an omen of things to come.

Just the bangers, the AFL honchos had supposedly demanded of Perry, and with Dark Horse, California Gurls and Teenage Dream coming in quick succession, they got what they asked for.

But Perry didn’t get where she is by being a pushover, and the request to do just one song from her latest – and so far not-much-loved – album, 143, was brushed aside. As well as the little teaser of Woman’s World, she played Gorgeous, a decent enough mid-tempo filler, and the Balearic banger Lifetimes, a track that might yet come to be considered among her classics.