AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan is adamant the crackdown on runners makes sense despite strong criticism from Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson.
The four-time premiership mentor is demanding clarity about the league's new rule, with runners now only allowed on the field after a goal is kicked.
"We're about to go into a big season ... and as we sit right here now we still don't exactly know what's going on with the runners rule and what the interpretation is going to be there," Clarkson told SEN on Monday.
"The changes with the game, do they need to be so dramatic in the first instance? Can we just monitor them as they come down."
Most club coaches met McLachlan and football manager Steve Hocking last Thursday, where Clarkson said "frustrations were aired".
But McLachlan has stressed the restrictions were trialled a year ago and coaches had time to get used to the changes during the pre-season.
"The rules are clear," McLachlan told Fox Footy on Monday night.
"There was a long discussion (on Thursday) and I would say the coaches had different perspectives, but there was clearly a group who were feeling the rules are difficult to work with given where it was."
But McLachlan did say Hocking was looking into "tweaking" the current rules or finding ways to deliver more help for the coaches to understand.
"The rules are known. If there's any help I'm sure Steve will go back to them," McLachlan said.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, St Kilda counterpart Alan Richardson and Brisbane veteran Luke Hodge have all called for the AFL to loosen the new restrictions.
Clarkson says runners need to be able to stay on the ground for longer.
"I think another option is to extend that time because 45 seconds on the ground, pretty much all he's doing is just managing rotations," Clarkson said.
