Australian rules football as opposed to cricket.

Footy season has kicked off with the now familiar cocktail of shocking injuries, drug and betting scandals and sponsorship hypocrisy.

The traditional glut of season-ending ACL injuries appears to be as much a feature of autumn as leaves changing their colourful allegiance from the Green Bay Packers to Hawthorn.

Meanwhile it was unselfish in the extreme that just as the endless Essendon saga threatened to finally wind up, the club's arch rival should volunteer to fill the drug scandal void .

If only the Pies' on-field defence could be as swift as its off-field.

So the clenbuterol detected in Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas must have come from contaminated beef. Mmmm, sounds familiar.

Funny how when Alberto Contador offered that excuse he was widely condemned for clutching at straws and duly stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title but when a couple of footy players try it the general consensus appears to be this might be worth investigating - much to the disgust and outrage of the accused New Zealand beef industry.

Elsewhere in Gillonland, investigations were held into players from two different clubs over alleged bets placed on games.

Clubs acted swiftly to distance themselves from the murky worlds of gambling and supplements.

Around the time that Australia's army of AFL journalists attempted to get to the bottom of all of the above, Carlton unveiled betting agency William Hill as its latest platinum partner and North Melbourne was "delighted to welcome" International Nutrition Company as its official sports supplement and performance partner.

Without a hint of irony, North CEO Carl Dilena said: "There are some great synergies between North Melbourne, INC and Chemist Warehouse and we know our fitness and conditioning programs will be further enhanced by this new partnership."

Gambling bad, supplements bad, sponsorship good.

Then last week Stephen Dank, described by the AFL as an "Essendon FC support person" but by almost everybody else as a "controversial sports scientist", was found guilty of trafficking drugs even though nobody was found guilty of receiving them, which kind of makes you wonder why he bothered.

But when you get through the injuries, the drugs and the gambling, there's nothing better than sitting down to watch footy on the TV.

That is until Channel Seven revive the glory days of Nine's AFL coverage by introducing adverts immediately after goals to ensure viewers don't enjoy the experience too much.