Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson says Western Bulldogs counterpart Luke Beveridge is on his own with his opposition to the AFL’s new medical substitute rule.

The rule was used by both teams in Thursday night’s season-opener, with AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan declaring it “worked incredibly well”.

Beveridge and Richmond coach Damien Hardwick weren’t involved in a coaches meeting which ultimately led to an extra player being approved as a replacement for any teammate who suffers a game-ending injury.

On Thursday Beveridge said the “rushed” substitute rule, introduced a day before the season started, created a “whole series of headaches“, but Clarkson insisted every other head coach had supported the change.

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“I think there were 17 that were vocal with it - I think Bevo was the only one who from all reports post has not been - and that’s probably only because he wasn’t in the meeting,” Clarkson said on Friday.

“There was a really good discussion amongst all the coaches about the merits of that.

“As we all discussed at that meeting, first and foremost it’s about the welfare of the players.

“We just spoke about the players being so gassed and the quarters being longer, rotations less - there’s a lot of demands on the game.

“The game is as brutal and as physical as it’s ever been ... so we need to have a real mind for the protection of the player.”

Oscar McDonald became the league’s first medical substitute at the MCG, where he replaced Carlton teammate Jack Silvagni (shoulder) at half-time.

Richmond’s sub, Jack Ross, was activated late in the third quarter as defender Nick Vlastuin injured his knee.

McLachlan argued the substitutions and new rule for manning the mark both worked well.

“It (the sub) was obviously a strong push from the coaches,” he told 3AW.

“Everyone has different views.

“The broader coaching group has a different view (to Beveridge).”

Hardwick said his players had been “going down like ninepins” late and supported the substitute rule, believing it would improve the game.

Clarkson said the coaches’ discussion had originally been around a concussion substitute but “once it went to the AFL it evolved” into a medical substitute.

When introducing the substitute, the AFL said it was for injuries that looked set to sideline a player for 12 days - though for any injury bar concussion, there is no mandated break.

But Clarkson said Hawthorn’s doctors had been instructed to make a decision purely on whether the player was fit to see out the game.

“We said to our docs yesterday ‘don’t worry about next week or anything - you make a ruling on whether the player can return to the field of play or not, if you don’t think he can then sub him out,’ Clarkson said.

“And then we’ll deal with what happens next week later on and the AFL can deal with that in terms of whether or not he should play the next week or not.”