Before the opening siren on Saturday, the AFL Commission hosted its nearest and dearest at its customary lunch in the Olympic Room at the MCG. And by nearest and dearest, we mean, the sponsors, advertisers, broadcasters, politicians and other influential hangers-on whose money and patronage make it the nation’s pre-eminent sporting code.

“It’s the people in this room who make the game what it is,” AFL chairman Richard Goyder said, before adding that “of course, we’ll have some superb athletes on the field later on”.