Steve Hocking and his successor Greg Swann have found a way to free the footy from the boring stoppage-based dross we were so used to witnessing.

Now in a season of change, it is time to release the handbrake on player movement.

A restricted form of a mid-season trade period, turning the mid-season draft into a full blown equalisation measure, and a more fluid list structure.

All of those could and should be on the table if the league is keen to maximise interest in the AFL.

In a year when high-scoring teams using aggressive corridor-based forward handball has produced higher scores and big bags of goals, there has still been lashing of controversy.

Luke Sayers’ “dick pic” drama, Lachie Neale’s summer controversy, the ARC’s usual stuff-ups, the usual spate of coach sackings.

What brings us back from those distractions are the heroics of the players and their compelling storylines.

And increasingly they are coming from different avenues like the mid-season draft and pre-season rookie period, which seemingly provide fairytale stories by the week.

The question is whether the league can find ways to free up player movement even more, and even find methods to help the bottom six clubs shoot up the ladder by using some of those mechanisms.

Footy’s greatest gift is its players.

They know it too – their stories and their heroics.

It is why Jobe Watson one day canvassed a “sit down” protest as part of CBA negotiations that would have seen players refusing to play for a chunk of a game.

Without players the game is nothing.

Consider how incredible the stories have been these past weeks as so many mid-season draftees made immediate debuts.

From Adelaide’s Hugo Hall-Kahan (debuting off two training sessions at the Crows), to West Coast’s Marcus Herbert selling ‘candy’ to his opponents in his home debut, to Collingwood throwing in ‘The Podiatrist’ Mitch Podhajski in on King’s Birthday.

Mitch Podhajski’s first AFL goal

This weekend Melbourne blooded a pair of first-gamers in mature-agers Lucas Cooke and Joel Fitzgerald and both looked at home even if Cooke broke his cheekbone early on.

Fitzgerald has played four games for three different teams in recent weeks – Williamstown, then the Casey Demons and now Melbourne.

Southport’s Campbell Lake has already shown he can make the grade as a pressure forward at St Kilda and new Richmond key defender Kye Annand took some nice grabs on quality opponents on Sunday.

Rangy utility Xavier Bamert already looks like a keeper at Port Adelaide after being overlooked in last year’s national draft.

Watching players like Hall-Kahan and 27-year-old Podhajski live a dream they believed had eluded them might be among the best stories in football.

Some suggestions.

As the AFL considers special assistance packages for Essendon, why can’t we tie the mid-season draft into equalisation?

Why don’t the bottom five sides by May receive not only an extra list spot but a pair of early mid-season draft selections to bolster their lists?

All the bottom five sides receive a pick each, then another pick in the same order, before the draft moves onto the rest of the AFL’s 18 teams.

Or the bottom five is too many, then at least the bottom three.

Essendon doesn’t deserve a special assistance package anyway after a pair of recent 11-win seasons.

But especially not because they are about to receive an extra second-rounder through the AFL’s new draft rules after having their top five pick pushed back in the order.

But would anyone quibble if the bottom five clubs on ladder order this year – Essendon, Richmond, West Coast, Carlton, Port Adelaide had both had two picks in the top 10?

It is an equalisation measure, it allows those players to find homes at clubs where they are mostly likely to play, and it gives more state-league players and overlooked draftees new homes.

If it allowed them an extra list spot for six months, then who would quibble given teams are often given extra rookie list spots as part of assistance packages.

When you consider that Toby Greene and Lachie Neale are considering leaving as unrestricted free agents – but only to clubs in finals contention – we need to do more to help bottom four clubs bounce.

There is no doubt the talent is there.

Last year’s mid-season draft included pick one Tom McCarthy, pick 10 Cooper Trembath, pick three Harrison Ramm (who did some nice things playing in defence on Saturday night for Port Adelaide), pick five Michael Sellwood, pick six Archer May, pick seven Oscar Adams (who has kept Charlie Ballard out until this week).

Also in that draft were Pies wingman Roan Steele (pick eight), Dons ruck-back Lachie Blakiston (pick 13), and Port Adelaide’s Mani Liddy as well as pick 18 Liam McMahon.

While we are at it, is there a way to keep the pre-season rookie period open for long enough to incentivise even more of these last-chance hero stories?

The AFL’s new head of football performance and list management Justin Reid flagged last week his openness to exploring the idea.

This year the league eventually pushed back its deadline to March 2 but even if it was open for the first two weeks of the season would anyone complain?

Maybe some state-league clubs but if they aren’t in the business of trying to get their players drafted they should hang their head in shame.

This summer’s rookie elevations have had plenty of highs.

Carlton’s Wade Derksen (with Elijah Hollands), Will Setterfield (Essendon’s best player on the weekend), Mason Cox and Chris Scerri, Giants defender Jayden Laverde, North’s Tom Blamires, West Coast cult hero Milan Murdock, Western Bulldogs Sicily-hunter Will Lewis.

So there is enough talent to fill the summer rookie allocations while also leaving enough left over for the mid-season draft.

The AFL’s non-Victorian clubs have pushed back hard against a mid-season trade period and so with limited club support the league went cold on that idea.

The idea of a club like St Kilda being on the verge of breaking a premiership drought before a cashed-up rival stealing a flag from under their noses with a high-profile mid-season recruit underlines the negatives of a mid-season draft period.

But the question is whether the league can hasten slowly so we can maximise the chances of under-utilised players getting their chance to play senior football?

It might be that only players under a salary of $600,000 a season can be traded.

But would Sydney be prepared to hand over either of Hayden McLean or Peter Ladhams now if the price was right?

Maybe not given this club is in the flag window but the debate would only spark debate.

A salary limit would stop a club bringing in a Patrick Cripps type to help win them a flag and potentially mortgage their long-term future.

But now that the AFL has bedded down its Tasmanian list concessions it can tinker away at the edges to continue to maximise interest in the game.