If there were broad cheers across the competition when the AFL finally gave the ‘substitute rule’ the red vest last week, one Adelaide player was probably crowing louder than most.

Jarryd Lyons has played 34 games since his 2012 debut, and has worn the sub’s vest in exactly half of them, more than any of his Adelaide teammates.

Eight of his 12 games this year alone have been curtailed by the substitute rule, including wearing the green vest as the ‘starting sub’ in the past three games straight.

“It’s not a personal vendetta against Jarryd,” interim coach Scott Camporeale laughed this week when asked about the Number 31’s frequent dalliance with the unwanted fashion accessory.

“We’ll pick the best team and best balance going in to (play) any opposition side.”

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Lyons himself has made it clear that it’s not easy being green, telling News Corp last month his propensity to don the vest has been “a bit of a pain in the backside”, and that if the rule was scrapped he’d be “the first person waving it goodbye’’.

“It’s sort of ruined things a bit…it certainly makes it hard to get any consistency,’’ he said at the time.

Lyons, a medium-paced inside midfielder, has his work cut out trying to crack an engine room populated by the likes of Patrick Dangerfield, Rory Sloane, Scott Thompson and Richard Douglas, but his goal sense has seen him used as an impact player as he tried to make his mark in the finals-bound side.

The Crows’ late coach Phil Walsh railed against the sub rule earlier this year, ironically even declaring a policy has a policy that none of his players would wear the vest in consecutive games.

However, that policy only lasted as long as Round 8, when Lyons suited up in his familiar shade of green for the Crows loss to the Giants, having started as the sub the previous week against St Kilda. He ended up coming on late three weeks in a row, before being dropped for a game against Carlton.

Camporeale agreed this week that Lyons would have been celebrating the demise of the dreaded green and red vests, as the AFL instead reduced the number of bench rotations per game from 120 to 90, in a bid to curb unsightly congestion.

“Oh no doubt,” Camporeale said.

“I would think any of the guys that have been in that situation, not just Jarryd, would be pleased that they’ve got rid of that rule.”

The timing of the rule change is helpful, given Lyons is out of contract at the end of next season, having signed a two year deal at the end of last year.