It has to be said that the AFL is doing a great job. We know this, because it has been said in pretty much every match commentary this season.
The only things that feature more heavily in football coverage now are sports betting come-ons, and those hardware ads which feature such esoteric items as timber pendant lamps and blow mould tables without ever quite explaining what they are.
The AFL's substitute rule was hilariously ineffective.Credit: Getty Images
So what are the great breakthroughs the AFL has achieved to this point in season 2016? Apparently, one of them is highly entertaining, free-flowing play.
The nominal generator of this cornucopia of mercurial, flowing footy is the greater restriction on interchanges per team, down from 120 in the past to 90 this season.
Illustration: Matt Golding
It's an interesting contention, for a few reasons. One is that this wasn't what the interchange cap reduction was meant to achieve. It was nominally brought in to reduce the cardio flaying of players to within an inch of their lives under previous, more generous, interchange arrangements.
(As was its hilariously ineffectual precursor, the "substitute" rule, a measure all but designed to be about as effective as a farmer trying to stop foxes eating chickens by putting up a "No Trespassing" sign. Not that this deterred the AFL from persisting with it for a good year past the point of comedy.)
In fact, quite a few pundits predicted the 90-interchange cap would tighten contests and make matches even more unattractive.
So if free-flowing play was indeed the magnificent bounty of the new interchange ruling, apparently it was neither the intention of the rule, nor was the outcome necessarily predictable.
Thus one possible view is that the league is being roundly lauded for a happy accident. It's as if, in the famous fairytale, when Jack sold his poor family's only cow for a few "magic beans", instead of giving him a good clip over the ear, they threw a parade for him, because, in the end result, the giant beanstalk offered good shade for outdoor entertaining.