COLLINGWOOD'S "garbarge" first-up performance against Carlton last Friday in the NAB AFL Women's season opener contributed to an underwhelming spectacle, Magpies assistant coach Daniel Harford concedes.

Neither side kicked a goal in the second half as the Blues won by eight points and after the first week of the NAB AFL Women's competition, there has been criticism in some quarters about the standard of play.

Harford told RSN on Wednesday morning that cleaner skills would have made for a more entertaining contest.

"We were garbage, which didn't help. We tried to get the ball into free space a lot and just kept turning the ball over," Harford said.

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"(We) couldn't pick it up, couldn't mark it and all of a sudden you get a pack of numbers swarming on the ball, so we played a fair part in that as a team.

"Then you've got the way Carlton played, with a bit more of a defensive structure behind the ball. Putting that together, you get a pretty nasty product."

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan defended the opening round of AFLW on Tuesday, but said he was hopeful of a more open style in upcoming games.

"That game keeps developing – the crowds and the energy and atmosphere of the games is amazing," McLachlan said.

"We saw three really good games. There was one, I'm not sure ... that wasn't as open.

"For me, it's the openness of the footy and the attacking mindset. The scoring is an outcome.

"I hope that all eight, rather than just the majority, of coaches take that attacking mindset into this weekend."

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Harford said discussions between the AFL and AFLW clubs about the state of play were not new.

"This is what happened last year. There would be a conversation at the end of the weekend between the AFL and the coaches, and it's happened again this year, so I don't think this is anything out of the ordinary, from what I'm led to believe," Harford said.

He was adamant there had been no directive from the AFL demanding clubs play a certain way but pointed out philosophically, if the governing body was too intrusive, AFLW could be undermined.

"The danger from the AFL's perspective is if you start to encourage entertainment as opposed to winning, you haven't got much of a competition. There's not a lot of substance in your competition," Harford said.

"The clubs are quite annoyed about that."