Brisbane Lions midfielder Pearce Hanley told Fox Footy during preseason that he believed a raft of off-season rule changes would “definitely make the game a lot more exciting with more scoring”.

The changes included a stricter interpretation of the deliberate out of bounds rule and a reduction of the interchange cap from 120 to 90.

Did the stats prove Hanley right?

Dylan Waghorne is a second year Bachelor of Media and Communications (Sports Journalism) student. You can follow him on twitter: @dylanwaghorne