After Madonna wowed a worldwide audience during the half-time break of the Super Bowl, broad comparisons were being drawn with the AFL’s version last season, when the veteran American rocker inflicted a below-par performance on the near 100,000 crowd.
Even AFL boss Andrew Demetriou – who admitted to being unabashed fan in the build-up to the final – said the show had been a let-down, particularly given Meat Loaf's reputed $600,000 fee.
And now the league is reviewing its entire take on the entertainment on grand final day, said operations boss Adrian Anderson.
“It (the Super Bowl half-time show) was an amazing show, just awesome, the set and the scale of it and it really is a huge part of their day – I know our guys are having a look at the entertainment on grand final day and the role it plays,” Anderson said.
“You never are going to replicate something like that, so the question should be 'What role should it play in our game?', because in the NFL it really is a key part of the event.
“What I would be really interested in is the extent that people really think entertainment is an important part of Grand Final day.
“From a personal point of view and from a football point of view the game is always the absolute key to the whole thing, but different people have a different views.
“It will be something good for us to understand better what people really want, and whether they think entertainment has to be a centrepiece to that or not.”
After being almost universally slated for his appearance, Meat Loaf hit back at the AFL labelling them “jerks”, vowing to convince other artists not to perform at the grand final, and claiming not enough time for a sound check.
Anderson said the fallout from the musical build up was a big irritation.
“We saw one of the great grand finals and all people seemed to want to talk about was a guy playing music … before the game,” Anderson told 3AW.
“I know the guys looking at this will consider the role of entertainment, and are having a wide ranging look at the way the day is constructed and will come up with some good answers."