THERE are a few people out there who have implored me to write a few words right here bagging the bejeezus out of the NRL's grand final entertainment on Sunday.

I feel your pain.

In case you missed it, (a) buy a lottery ticket, you lucky bastard and (b) it was: dance act Justice Crew, a ‘Northern Territory diva' miming a duet with Snoop Dogg who was not there and You Am I featuring guest vocalists covering two Rolling Stones songs.

It was no doubt the worst since the cast of 42nd Street got on stage to do a big number and someone forgot the music.

Or maybe since Billy Idol's microphone went dead.

Or since the giant cardboard Optus Vision television fell apart. Or maybe since the TV-equipped parachutist hit the grandstand roof.

Or since the crowd at the grand final was reduced to extras in an ad starring Tina Turner, who sang to a guidetrack while fans were ordered to wave Winfield Cup flags in the background.

So I could just say that the entertainment was bad, that bands playing covers belong in the corner of pubs and doing duets with people who are in Los Angeles asleep is just embarrassing.

But Paul Kind, the marketing manager at the NRL, is one of that organisation's brightest stars. Some of the advertising campaigns during the past decade have been brilliant and the rise in members over the past couple of years has been a great achievement.

The problem isn't Kind's motivation, intelligence or inspiration - it's his philosophy.

He and his staff think rugby league is a commercial commodity anyway, so it's OK to shove more commercial products down peoples' throats when they walk through the gate. Sony is a sponsor of the NRL, so let's put someone on stage at the grand final who most people have never heard of but who has a CD coming out on Sony next week!

You Am I recently performed Exile On Main Street in its entirety with guest vocalists so why not have them play that? They'll do it for free because they also have a new album coming out!

I might be wrong, but I disagree completely with Paul and his staff.

Is there a worse case of ambush marketing than paying $200 to go to a grand final and being force-fed music and other products you couldn't care less about? I respectfully suggest this is an insult - and such a big one I reckon it might be time to have government legislation to prevent it.

If the government can have anti-siphoning lists then it should have laws to save us from being assaulted with advertising - blatant and covert - when we go to sporting events. It's gone too far.

My second point about the entertainment on grand final day is that it's our front window to the rest of the sporting world. I'm not quite sure how Rabbits Warren explained Sunday's entertainment to viewers in Madrid and Saskatoon.

"There he is, the Great Snoop Dogg, um, on a CD. Our local Darwin girl is doing a great job of miming along though, Sterlo!"

And "Geez Gus, this band does a better version of Brown Sugar than the Cockroaches used to do!"

Please: the stage before the grand final is not a talkshow couch, there for any celebrity who passes to promote whatever washing powder or fat-free grill as they walk past.

It's part of the greatest day in our calendar and is in desperate need of being treated with a lot more respect.

Rugby league is not a frigging race car to cover with as many logos and subliminal messages as you can squeeze onto it while it has the country's attention for a couple of hours.

Like I said, it's about philosophy - not ability or inspiration. I want the people who organise the entertainment each year to have as much reverence for the occasion as you and I do.

If I can convince you to see it my way, Paul, then I am sure you are the right man to find the right people next year. Everything else you do for our game is magnificent.

VERY quickly, the first Golden Stanley Award winner for upholding the principles of Steelerdom goes to Peter Sterling, for picking up Phil Gould the second he said "all-Sydney grand final".

Congrats to the Dragons. In yesterday's column I tried to give readers an insight into what motivated them. That does not detract from their achievements.

Everyone has to be motivated by something.