If you’ve been around the internet in the last 24 hours, you’ll know that the NFL Super Bowl went down yesterday, with the Denver Broncos coming out victorious against the Carolina Panthers.

Actually, you probably won’t know that, because all anybody is talking about is the incredible halftime show, which featured Coldplay, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, and Mark Ronson in a 12-minute collaborative spectacular.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Coldplay came out and did a couple of their songs before Beyonce materialised and proceeded to show Chris Martin and co how it’s done, with a little help from Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson.

The higher-ups at the AFL have certainly seen it. As soon as the halftime show aired they were inundated with a deluge of tweets and Facebook comments urging them to follow the NFL’s example.

“Sensing a bit of a theme over on Twitter today,” the AFL wrote on their official Facebook page, sharing screenshots of their Twitter feed which basically consisted of, “Hey AFL, this is how it’s done!”

If their Twitter channel is anything to go by, they were certainly paying attention to the Beyonce show Super Bowl halftime show, informing one follower, “We are all out of notes.”

The AFL has long been criticised for the lacklustre quality of their Grand Final entertainment, with many complaining that the league omits homegrown acts in favour of international acts or entertainers well past their prime.

Sensing a bit of a theme over on Twitter today… 󾔧󾔧󾔧

Posted by AFL onSunday, February 7, 2016

After Ellie Goulding, Bryan Adams, and Chris Isaak were announced for last year’s Grand Final entertainment, Music Victoria called the lineup “disappointing” and criticised the lack of homegrown acts.

Many readers will remember the disastrous appearances made by the likes of Meat Loaf, who later blamed a throat condition for his out-of-tune performance, and Angry Anderson, who gave arguably the most infamous Grand Final performance of all time.

However, some commenters think the AFL shouldn’t follow the NFL’s lead and would instead do better to keep focus on the game and not the entertainment surrounding the match.

“People watch the Super Bowl for the ads and the entertainment,” wrote one commenter. “Anyone who wants that to be the focus of the Grand Final clearly doesn’t care about the game itself, which should be and often is the star attraction.”

“I dont even know who’s playing in the Super Bowl yet I have seen plenty of ads and know all about the half time show. The match itself is irrelevant… don’t let our great game be trivialised by so called ‘entertainment’,” wrote another.

It’s certainly something to think about – does the fact that the Grand Final’s pre-match entertainment is so shit ensure we’re all paying attention to the game and not all the extra fluff surrounding it?

Truth be told, we don’t even have to travel as far as America to see a halftime show done right. As we previously noted, the NRL managed to blow the AFL out of the water with a halftime performance from Cold Chisel.

Sure, Barnesy and the boys had the advantage of performing in the evening when there’s more of an atmosphere, but what really made it work is the fact that you had a great group of performers giving it their all at halftime and not before the game.

Chisel were also given an actual audience to perform to and weren’t simply chucked out on a tiny stage in the middle of the field as people in the stadium were still finding their seats and those at home were prepping snacks.

AFL, take note.

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