North Melbourne's Brad Scott believes the AFL's new starting position rule will have the biggest impact of any law change in his decade-long coaching tenure.
Scott says the rule dictating each team must start with six players in attack, midfield and defence will be a boon for AFL purists - but not coaches.
"You can only do so much," Scott said on Saturday after North's 21-point pre-season game loss to Port Adelaide.
"Right at the moment, whatever you do is not going to be good enough if the opposition is dominant out of the centre bounce."
The North-Port clash, in which both clubs topped the 100-point mark, featured more than a dozen goals scored directly from centre bounce clearances.
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"The game was too easy to shut down at times with the rules the way they were," Scott said.
"The changes are significant. And things like the kick-in rule, that will evolve as the season goes on a bit more.
"But clearly centre bounce scores haven't been a big part of scoring in the AFL ... they are going to be a big part of scoring now."
And Scott said that was a good thing.
"I think (Brownlow medallist) Chris Judd said it, I think a number of players have said it: the really good players in the competition have got more space," he said.
"We should always give the good players the most space to work in.
"Sometimes the game has got to be mandated against coaches who want to shut it down."
