A minority will be key position players, whose capacity to either take or prevent marks and kick or stop goals will be paramount. But the bulk of the new intake will be at best slight variations on the prototype of the modern midfielder.

What qualities will 18 clubs be looking for among that vast number? Well, marking and kicking skills will remain important. Perhaps, though, not quite as important as quick and clean hands in tight spaces, or the ability and preparedness to pressure the ball-carrier and to tackle.

If clubs are taking their cues from the new reigning AFL premier, as is usually the case it's those traits, exemplified by the Western Bulldogs, which will loom large in every club's decision to take player A ahead of player B. Not to mention a quick glance at the latest statistical trends in the game.

The numbers for season 2016 reveal that for all the various tweaks to both the rules of the game and the way teams approach their game styles, not that much is changing. But where it was Hawthorn for several years best-placed to exploit how the game was being played through precise kicking skills, the Bulldogs look in the box seat to maximise what subtle shifts there have been.

The status quo remains relatively untouched when it comes to the most fundamental statistic of scoring. For all the high-fiving that went on early last season when some (in a recent context) unusually high scores were being recorded, the wash-up wasn't nearly so impressive.

In 2016, teams scored an average of 88 points per game, only a tiny increase on the 86-point average of the previous two seasons. In short, this was the third-lowest scoring season since the pre out-of-bounds on-the-full days of 1968.

Contested marking rose only fractionally, disposal efficiency stayed around the same mark, and there were about as many free kicks awarded as in four of the past five years. Two numbers which did jump out, however, were for handball and tackling.

Last season, the average number of handballs per team rose to more than 170 per game, up from 159.7, only the second time in the near two decades Champion Data has been the official AFL provider that the 170-mark has been breached, and the kick-to-handball ratio of 1.21 the second-lowest recorded over the same period.

The number of tackles this year was the highest ever recorded, an average of just on 70 per team. Contested possession was at its highest level since 2011 and the second-highest figure yet. Those figures are particularly significant given that around-the-ground stoppages fell from 70.7 to 61.9.

That reduction had very little to do with fewer ball-ups, and almost everything to do with fewer throw-ins, the harsher interpretation on deliberate out-of-bounds and the new 10-metre protected area rule making teams far more corridor-centric.

Yet that didn't increase scoring much at all, nor necessarily open the game up. Neither did a further reduction of the interchange cap from 120 to 90. The congestion simply became more frequent in the corridor than near the boundary line.

But that, however, might have increased even further the premium on good, quick handball skills in the traffic, with the prize for breaking clear a potential goal-scoring opportunity from a more central location rather than having to take a chance from out wide, or having to navigate inboard again once the clearance has been won.

In that context, the Western Bulldogs' well-documented "handball club" became a valuable weapon, the necessary add-on to their capacity to win stoppages, contested ball and to harass and tackle.

In 2016, they ranked No.1 on the AFL differentials for contested possession and second for clearances. What happened to those hard-ball wins? Well, they were also No. 1 for handball and second for inside 50 entries, the underlying message that they could then break clear of traffic and bang the ball forward.

Think of the number of times this year you saw Bulldog midfielders somehow manage to extract the pill and give it off by hand despite being tackled, their handball ability even at shoulder level of above their heads superior to their rivals.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson noted it after his team lost their semi-final to the Dogs. Age columnist Wayne Carey joined the chorus. "I've not seen a team do it as well as the Bulldogs, ever," he said. Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore, Luke Dahlhaus and co. did it brilliantly all season.

But if you want an example of how any sort of shift in game trends can impact on a specific player's ability to thrive or struggle, take the example of another couple of premiership Dogs in Josh Dunkley and Clay Smith.

Midfielder Dunkley was eligible to be taken by Sydney under the father-son rule, but the Swans opted not to match the Bulldogs' bid for him, ultimately because they'd observed problems with his kicking, and had made improving the disposal skills of their list a recruiting priority.

They weren't wrong, either. In his debut AFL season, Dunkley averaged 16.9 disposals in his 17 games. Of the 223 AFL players who averaged more than that this season, fewer than 30 had a worse disposal efficiency average than Dunkley's 67.4.

Teammate Clay Smith only returned from a knee reconstruction in round 15. Operating as a medium-sized forward, his disposal efficiency by season's end was lower than Dunkley's at 67 per cent.

Yet Smith and Dunkley finished No. 1 and 2 on the Bulldogs' tackle averages for 2016. The pair laid a collective 18 tackles on grand final day, nearly 20 per cent of the Dogs' tally.

Smith's forward pressure not only created turnovers, but he averaged two goals per game himself during the finals campaign. Dunkley helped create the midfield pressure that the Dogs' better users by hand and foot thrived upon.

He was rewarded not only with a premiership medallion won against the team which overlooked him, but the Bulldogs' best first-year player award.

Neither player possesses what could be called silky skills, but their attributes fit perfectly into the game style coach Luke Beveridge has engineered.

Aside from winning the flag from seventh, the other big premiership bogey the Bulldogs overcame was doing so while ranked only 12th in the competition for scoring. Only one other premier of the past 22 (Sydney in 2005) has ranked any lower than fifth.

Yet at the same time, the Bulldogs average of 84.4 points per game was only four points behind the competition average. With Travis Cloke and a returned Stewart Crameri back in the mix for 2017, you'd expect that number to rise at least a little. Which looks to be more than enough.

The last time AFL average scores were more than 100 points was back in 2000. Over the past eight seasons, they have never been higher than 92. And the last three seasons, we've had the lowest tallies for nearly 50 years. Those numbers aren't likely to soar back to anything like the heights of last century.

Just as congestion isn't likely to magically disappear. Nor players to find much more space. It means, as Allan Jeans used to say, "good drivers in heavy traffic" will be at even more of a premium, and physical pressure and good hands in those surrounds every bit as if not more vital than what players do by foot.

Something to ponder come draft day in a couple of weeks. Those draftees with the more visible skills are still likely to get the attention and have their names called earlier. But the potential Dunkleys and Smiths of the next few years are also coming into an AFL which more and more looks to be rewarding less obvious talents just as much.