Managing the bench meant most teams took a retro approach and left a defender, normally a key back, on the ground for the entire match to allow the aerobic midfielders to use up their rotations. Billy Frampton, Callum Wilkie, Rory Lobb and Connor Idun all played 100 per cent of game time while Harris Andrews had just a few minutes on the bench (97 per cent of game time).

Hawthorn held Finn Maginness back to 56 per cent game time. The Dogs kept young Jordan Croft off the ground for the last quarter, and he played just 46 per cent of the match though whether that was for form or fitness was uncertain.

Clubs spent the summer debating how to handle the extra player on the bench this season after the AFL dispensed with the sub and just made it a fifth player on the bench who could be used at any time. The AFL did not increase the number of interchange rotations available.

Some coaches took the view that adding the fifth player into rotations would cut into the amount of time the better players spent on the ground. Instead, they treated the fifth player on the bench as the one who would play reduced minutes just as the sub used to, but the advantage this year would be they could pepper those minutes through all four quarters.

That approach favours the older, slower, players like Pendlebury being held back until the heat in the game subsides. It also favours using power players like De Goey in short bursts.

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The change favours using players who are returning from injury or carrying an injury, like Papley on Thursday night, in bursts. It favours a player like Patty Dangerfield, who is both a veteran and a power athlete, being able to come back into the team and be used like Pendlebury/De Goey.

The expanded bench was a subtle but profound change in the opening sample of games.

Players adapted quickly and without rancour to the last disposal out of bounds free kick between the arcs. Without the discretion of an umpire weighing a players’ intent, it made the free kick clear.

Surprisingly, there were slightly more throw-ins on average this opening round compared with last season (37.4 up from 34.1) despite the last disposal between the arcs rule.

While the ruck rule change led to more frees being given at centre bounces and some hesitation and uncertainty among ruckmen, overall the number of ball-ups was way down on last year, from an average of 36 per game to just 22 per game in opening round.

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