AFL premiers Collingwood have started the season with an impressive round one NAB Cup win, beating Richmond and Carlton on Saturday night.

After easily disposing of Richmond by 43 points, the Magpies held off Carlton's late charge to win by seven points at Etihad Stadium, 5.3 (33) to 3.8 (26).

Jarryd Blair was outstanding in the two games for Collingwood, while Chris Dawes kicked three goals against Richmond and another against the Blues in front of 40,300 fans.

A superb snapped goal to Andrew Krakouer gave the 'Pies a 16-point lead in the second half against Carlton, but the Blues finished well and had several chances to put more scoring pressure on Collingwood at the end of the match.

The best team from each of the six opening round robin fixtures goes into the quarter-finals, plus the next two best-performed teams.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick took a lot of the night, even though his undermanned team struggled in their two games.

They only managed one behind in the second half of the Carlton match, losing 6.5 (41) to 3.5 (23), and also were restricted to one point in the first half against the Magpies.

Collingwood were far too strong for the young Tigers and won in a canter, 7.8 (50) to 1.1 (7).

Richmond were missing many of their top players, including captain Chris Newman, Jack Riewoldt and Dustin Martin.

Ruckman Tom Dericks and defender Jake Batchelor, who joined Richmond through last year's national draft, were two newcomers who impressed in their first hitouts at this level.

"We wanted to throw our kids in the deep end at the start and give them an idea of what the game is all about and how they've got to train to get to that intensity and I think we found that out," Hardwick said.

"If you want to learn how to play footy, you learn to play against the best and although the scoreboard said otherwise, I think our players would have learned a hell of a lot out of tonight, which is great."

The umpires used the new video review system to check Dawes' second goal against Richmond was not touched off the boot

Hardwick joined Melbourne coach Dean Bailey in canning the experimental out of bounds rule, which is only being trialled for the opening NAB Cup round.

Under the rule, a free kick is awarded against the last player to touch the ball before it goes out, unless it is in a contest.

But the new rule is proving simply too hard to work out.

"Sometimes it was like paper, scissors, rock, to see which way it went," Hardwick said.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and Carlton counterpart Brett Ratten joined Hardwick in giving the thumbs down to the out of bounds experiment.

Ratten said it went against one of the fundamentals of the game - that the player should always try to be first to the ball.

Buckley was in charge for Collingwood's two Saturday night games, ahead of his taking over from Mick Malthouse next year in the coaching succession plan.

"It's like I'm driving someone else's very expensive car ... but he's sitting in the passenger's seat, watching me drive it," Buckley said.

"So it's a little bit nerve-wracking at times ... but it's not my car, I'm trying to drive it as well as I can for the period I have it."

He and Ratten, like Hardwick, were pleased to give senior exposure to their younger players and felt their teams gained plenty out of the night.

Carlton lost key forward Setanta O'hAilpin in the first half with a rolled ankle and they did not risk him for the rest of the match.

Ratten said that threw out their forward set up, but noted they finished the game well.

"By the end of it we had 11 shots to eight, maybe if it went a bit longer, we were up and running," Ratten said.

Ruckman Rob Warnock, Carlton's best player in the first game, did not play against Collingwood as they used as many players as possible through the evening.

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