It offers few restrictions, apart from frowning heavily upon zones and was – significantly – only sent out to all the clubs on Thursday night after football boss Mark Evans had ruled out restricting interchange rotations next season.

Committing Australian rules football to a charter that was set in stone for all levels of the game for all time proved far too difficult and restrictive for the AFL in the finish, even though that was how Gillon McLachlan envisaged it in early 2013.

Instead Evans, after a series of delays and back and forwards with the commission, has approved nine key guiding principles which will serve as riding instructions for the Laws Of The Game Committee. It does not directly address the increasing absence of position selection and man-on-man contests.

The game retains its unique characteristics despite the fact that the 2013 grand final would have been a game in so many ways unrecognisable to anyone who had not watched football for 20 years. The same could not be said of the 2014 World Cup.

Mike Fitzpatrick, the AFL chairman and commissioner most disenchanted with the manner in which the game has evolved, would have rubber stamped the ''continuous and free-flowing football'' and preference for ''an attacking style of game'', but Andrew Demetriou would be disappointed that the centre bounce has not been stressed as preferable to the ball-up.

And it is unfortunate that the competition has balked again, at a time it releases its moveable feast of a charter, at seriously restricting interchange rotations, preferring to stick with a two-year commitment to a ''soft'' cap. This despite one of the most passionate rule-change campaigns in living memory waged by Kevin Bartlett – now removed from the laws committee – and an undertaking from the commission itself from which it backtracked.

Most recently came Saturday night's telling Collingwood defeat by a depleted Gold Coast, followed by a call from one of the game's retiring greats, Jonathan Brown, for a restriction capped at between 60 to 80 rotations.

A charter set in stone could have seen the AFL exposed should a recalcitrant player or club balk at an umpiring decision or game suspension. Clearly, a game that has changed so much about itself over such a short period did not want to restrict itself from further change.

Evans' regime to date has been a steady-as-she-goes rule, which has won back significant confidence from the clubs who did not like the style of his predecessor, Adrian Anderson. But his battle to win more public support for umpires remains just that and his next big test will surely be changes to the match review panel and its complex points and grading system.

And the charter he has overseen is as inoffensive as it is generic.

AFL CHARTER

Guiding principles for the Laws of the Game are: 

■ The unique characteristics of the game should be maintained and encouraged.

■ Player health and safety is protected via the Laws of the Game, interpretations and officiating.

■ A priority of the laws, interpretations and officiating is to reward and protect the player who makes winning the ball their primary objective.

■ Australian football at AFL level should be maintained as a physically tough and contested game with appropriate consideration to player health and safety.

■ Players of various sizes, football and athletic ability have an opportunity for success in the game played at the highest level.

■ The direction and movement of the ball is unpredictable and has few restrictions.

■ There are few restrictions on where players can be located across the ground.

■ Continuous and free-flowing football is encouraged ahead of repetitive short passages of play.

■ The Laws of the Game balances offensive and defensive aspects of play, where an attacking style of game is encouraged.

FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL

■ Played with an oval-shaped ball.

■ Played on an oval-shaped ground.

■ Has 18 players on the field per team.

■ Is a match consisting of four quarters.

■ Is based on kicking.

■ Permits handpassing, but does not allow the ball to be thrown.

■ Features spectacular high marking and spectacular goals.

■ Features players running at high speed while bouncing the ball.

■ Awards six points for a goal and one point for a behind.

■ At the start of each quarter and after each goal, play is resumed by a ruck contest at a centre bounce or ball-up.

■ When the ball has crossed the boundary line or hits the behind post, play resumes via a throw-in or free kick.

Australian football at AFL level to be maintained as a physically tough and contested game through:

■ Contested possessions.

■ Contested marks.

■ Ruck contests.

■ Tackling.

■ Shepherding and bumping.

■ The physical demands of fast and extended play.

It must be emphasised that all players have a duty of care to fellow participants. Tackling, shepherding, bumping and other contested elements of the game must be conducted within acceptable bounds to protect the health, safety and welfare of players and minimise the risk of injury.