RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace believes the paperwork involved with the new interchange system is simply unnecessary. 

Speaking in the lead-up to his side's Dreamtime at the 'G clash against Essendon at the MCG on Saturday, Wallace said there was easier way to run the interchange system and he "didn't believe the paperwork aspect of it was necessary".

"It's obviously an issue. We've got to get them [the rules] right and whether we agree with everything that's put in place or not - that's the rules and you've got to play by the rules that are there," Wallace said.

"The only thing that I don't like is the situation where by people outside of the playing arena can affect the scoreboard and I think our circumstances on the weekend - we would've given away a 50-metre penalty, which would've finished in a goal, from somebody writing a 12 instead of a 21 on a sheet or paper.”

Wallace said the system had the potential to impact the game significantly.

"I don't know whether you should have people that are not on the ground actually affecting the work that these blokes are doing on the ground and having an impact on matches - that's my only concern," Wallace said.

"They left the areas at exactly the right time, but because it was the wrong number on a sheet of paper, we would've got a goal against us, which could impact the game at the end of the day.

"I'm not sure whether Richard [Tambling] running 16 kilometres for the game and working his backside off, if somebody writing a wrong number on a sheet of paper should impact him on winning or losing a game."

Wallace said his club had put in a submission to the AFL about how they believed the interchange rules should take place, although he didn't elaborate. 

"We'll play under the rules that the AFL have put in place and that's where it's at and we've all put in submissions about where we believe it should go and we haven't heard back where those submissions are at, at this point in time, but I can't see that it'll change," Wallace said.

Meanwhile, Essendon coach Matthew Knights said it would take "a fair bit of discipline and self-control" for the players to get used to the new interchange set-up.

"We were fine last week. I was speaking to David Calthorpe, our team manager, who was also our runner last week … and it worked fairly well for us last week, so we'll look to do that again this week," Knights said.