The AFL needs to consider introducing substitutes into the home-and-away season, Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse said on Friday night.

Malthouse made the call after both the Magpies and North Melbourne lost players early in Collingwood's 52-point victory.

North lost Daniel Pratt to a knee injury, while the Magpies were without Paul Medhurst, who hurt his ankle in the first quarter and spent much of the second half on the bench.

The rule, which enabled a side to have two substitutes on the bench, was trialled in this year's NAB Cup. Once a player was substituted, as opposed to being interchanged, he could not come back onto the field.

Malthouse said this rule would prevent teams from being disadvantaged should they lose a player to injury early in a match.

"I just don't know how we're going to get across to people that we really do need to seriously consider some of the things that took place in the NAB Cup, which was the replacement of an injured player, a substitution if you like," he said.

He said medical evidence could be easily obtained to prevent clubs from exploiting the rule for their advantage.

"It's so important we don't ever lose the right, if it ever came in, because we exploit it the other way," he said.

"If we're here to have our best players out there and not run them into the ground because we don't have the same facility to interchange then I think we seriously have to see the game has evolved, and perhaps look at an additional one or two players."

The interchange rule, as we know it today, was first introduced in 1978 with a two-man bench. That was extended to three men in 1994 and four in 1998.

"I think the game's evolved in strength and speed that we just seriously should consider what I thought was a wonderful rule in the NAB Cup," Malthouse said.