Every year there is a timid conversation about the AFL’s grand final day entertainment, which this year reached new symbolic depths. Australian sport is so desperate for American stylings that it clamoured to secure the Black Eyed Peas, who (fair play to them for getting paid) jetted across the pacific to give us ‘‘Mazel tov’’.

It’s one thing to employ a talent-free ensemble if they live in Collingwood, but to transport one from the US at great expense highlights not only the decision making down at headquarters but the obvious desire to be closer to the US, whatever the cost.

The Black Eyed Peas perform at the AFL grand final. Credit:Joe Armao

It is natural for Australians to look to America for cultural sustenance, since it continues to produce in a variety of fields some of the world’s best and most captivating material. But there is quite a gap between the richness of the American art canon and say, the T-shirt cannon being fired at NBA stadiums, which is far closer to the type of Americanism being employed by Australian sport. It is not so much a refection of American culture as it is of American advertising, though at times the two are inseparable.

Although it varies according to the sport, the essence of the American atmosphere at its professional sports events can in many respects be captured by the enthusiasm of the person holding a T-shirt cannon. The shooter, always comically heated in the dramatisation of his role, will not fire his device until the crowd responds to the possibility of a free shirt with the same psychotic brimming that he exhibits.