IF YOU'RE not a midfielder, don't expect to get too much time on the bench this year.

That seems to be the players' consensus in the wake of the initial batch of games to feature a cap on interchanges.

Wednesday night's NAB Challenge opener between Geelong and Collingwood was the first contest played using a cap, although the extended benches meant the teams were allowed 130 rotations instead of 120, which will be the limit in the premiership season.

The Cats pushed things almost to the limit, making 127 interchanges to the Magpies' tally of 113.

"It's another thing for us to make sure that we get right," Geelong defender Andrew Mackie told AFL.com.au.

"It just means that if you're not in that midfield group that you're probably going to spend a bit more time on the field."

Mackie's role in the win over Collingwood reflected his comments. He spent 96 per cent of the match out on the ground.

In contrast, Steve Johnson, who racked up 29 touches in the midfield, was on the park for just 50 per cent of the match.

Geelong's other defenders also played a lot of minutes. Harry Taylor (95 per cent time-on-ground), Corey Enright (93 per cent) and Tom Lonergan (91 per cent) were afforded only a couple of quick trips to the bench each.

And Jimmy Bartel, who will alternate between half-forward and half-back this year, was on the ground for 97 per cent of the match.

During an appearance on the Fox Footy coverage of the clash, injured Cats skipper Joel Selwood had his own take on the potential impact of the interchange cap.

"I think we'll see more of the one-on-one match-ups," said. "We talked about Travis Cloke and Harry Taylor, and with the rotations, the way they are now, those blokes are probably only coming off once a quarter.

"They will spend a lot of time on each other throughout the game."

For many players, the reduced number of rest times has meant adopting a different training regimen.

Speaking after his club's intra-club match at Seaford on February 8, new St Kilda coach Alan Richardson acknowledged that some of his players have slimmed down to cope with the extra running load.

"But we only have to drop 10 or 12 rotations, so it's not a big issue for us," Richardson said.

Another interesting aspect of the first two NAB Challenge games was the handball-happy play, especially when it came to Collingwood.

On Wednesday night, the Magpies had 211 handballs compared to only 194 kicks.

Compare that to last year's losing elimination final against Port Adelaide, when the Magpies had 194 kicks and only 122 handballs.

Geelong had 223 kicks and 210 handballs on Wednesday night, which was in keeping with its kick-to-handball ratio at the end of last season.

The following night, reigning premier Hawthorn had 232 kicks and 208 handballs as it demolished the Brisbane Lions by 131 points.

In contrast, the Hawks had 221 kicks but only 116 handballs in last year's Grand Final victory over Fremantle.

When they were able to get the ball, which wasn't particularly often, the Lions were also keen to use their hands. They had 163 kicks and 163 handballs.

On Friday night, however, the trend disappeared.

Putting its new Paul Roos-inspired gameplan, which is focussed on what the coach describes as "ball retention", into action for the first time, Melbourne simply collected a mountain of possessions in its upset win over Richmond.

The Demons controlled the ball for most of the night, gathering 446 touches to the Tigers' 262.

Yet both sides were far keener to kick than handball. Melbourne had 254 kicks and 192 handballs, while the Tigers had 171 kicks and 91 handballs.

Kicking was also the order of the day when Carlton defeated North Melbourne in Ballarat on Saturday.

The Blues had just 119 handballs, compared to 189 kicks. The Kangaroos, meanwhile, played a more high-possession game, but they also finished with vastly more kicks than handballs.

Sunday's game between Port Adelaide and Adelaide saw another change take place. While the Power had 47 more kicks than handballs, the Crows, who won by 10 goals, were much keener to use their hands.

"The most obvious (change we've made to our gameplan for this season) was probably our kick-to-handball ratio," Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson said after the game.

"We were up around 1.6 kicks to handballs last year. This game we were almost one-to-one, so we certainly flicked the ball around a bit more, looked to run and carry a bit more.

Sanderson added that one of the Crows' key aims this season is to get the ball inside 30 metres from goal, rather than just worrying about racking up inside-50s.

It all goes to show that gameplans will vary a lot from club to club this season."

But we need a much larger sample of games to determine just how great those differences will be.