AFL coaching legend David Parkin calls it the "wow factor".

With Geelong's two premierships in three years leading the way, the game is set to place more reliance on players who can take risks and open up play.

Parkin attended the AFL's national coaching conference in Adelaide last weekend and was impressed by speeches from Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams, his assistant Michael Broadbridge and Crows coach Neil Craig.

The four-time premiership coach said Broadbridge and Craig, in particular, were predicting that the AFL will keep putting far more emphasis on attack.

The Cats' 2007 and `09 flags were notable for fast movement of the ball out of defence and free scoring, in strong contrast to the zone defence and flooding strategies that had dominated the league for the previous decade.

"It's going to be the risk now to score, the game has gone through this defensive (stage), making it difficult, no room to work in, etc," Parkin said.

"The `wow' factor, if you like - the person who has something very special ... (is) going to be terribly important.

"They can construct something out of nothing, that is going to be the evolutionary stage, the next stage, of footy."

Parkin was impressed by the conference, where more than 500 coaches from all levels of Australian Rules football gathered for a weekend of seminars and forums.

"It was the best football conference or participation thing I've been in, ever," Parkin said.

The former Hawthorn and Carlton coaching great is particularly impressed that people in football are more prepared to share ideas.

"We've had to always go outside our sport and we did (last) weekend, too, because no-one was giving anything up," he said.

"I think we've just reached a new maturity in our game, I was so excited about where we've gotten to."

Another new development for prospective coaches is a course at the Australian Catholic University, featuring Parkin as a guest lecturer.

The Bachelor of High Performance (Sport and Business) aims to help students develop their coaching, as well as giving them skills for working in business.

The current intake of students includes AFL notables such as Darren Crocker, David King, Dean Wallis and Leon Cameron.

"Courses like this are going to put (coaches) into a position of having to think about what they will stand for, what they believe in, what's necessary and how they will get better," Parkin said.

"The pointy end is now getting pretty pointy, about where you're going to find a difference, where you're prepared to take risks."

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