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The 2015 season will feature genuine contenders, a title up for grabs and fascinating mid-table tussles as good sides crowd the doorway. Bottom-feeders will bring down leviathans without surprise. Let’s hope the numbers turn up to appreciate it. The drop in attendance and general opinion, according to various Melbourne vox pops, is vaguely disturbing. Not all fans are turning away, but many seem dissatisfied. Much of it’s about pricing, but there’s also the matter of value.

Some changes have been for the better. Many believe limited free-agency is. Others continue to taint footy’s essence. Corporate and legal influences always threaten to penetrate too far, and people are finding themselves a little more irritated without knowing why. Maybe commentary like this sample, from ten minutes’ listening, provides one clue:

“He’s been playing well tonight. If you drink and drive you’re a bloody idiot.”

“Ablett’s already had 12 Aussie disposals.”

“Sydney up by three points. If you drive on drugs you’re out of your mind.”

“Here’s Robbo thanks to Karcher: Crameri coming off with a leg problem?”

“Grundy’s been Subway subbed out. Now we’ve had three Subway subs.”

“Pendlebury’s had 11 Carlton Draughts.” (Apparently now a generic term for a statistic).

That’s just commentary. Let’s talk welfare. It’s turning the game into a lumbering steampunk contraption with all sorts of absurd attachments, including indecipherable and heavy-handed penalties for indefinable offences, rules governing physical contact that ensure even the innocent are found guilty at least once in their life, and an interchange system that guarantees players perform at peak efficiency and skill for most of a match, making the game more boring for it.

Those who argue that scheduling and fixtures are the answer to declining interest are deflectors, brand protectors, who never brook criticism of the actual product – sorry, game. What they don’t understand is that people flock to the footy in the hope of getting away from the mind-numbing repetitions of modern life. It’s time someone who matters saw the overuse of interchange for what it is. It’s a pack of fresh-legged pachyderms all occupying the same room, and the AFL’s legally encumbered establishment keeps ignoring them. Apparently we go to games not to see footballers in action, but health and safety, duty of care, equality, tolerance, a fair day’s pay; snuggy, well-fed and well-off players swaddled in their legally compliant game.

The AFL Players' Association, charged only with every aspect of player welfare, wants no limits to interchange and argues that exciting midfielders like Dane Swan would be less effective, and more injured, if it were reduced – an insult to Swan. Good footballers find a way.

No one will be deriving incomes from live attendance the way things are going, and television will follow.

(The above article is an excerpt from Robert Drane's 2015 AFL Pigskin Preview, which appears in the March 2015 edition of Inside Sport).