Premiership player and North Melbourne’s director of coaching, Darren Crocker, knows a thing or two about coaching and elite sport.

That's why more than two dozen junior football coaches gathered to listen to the 1996 flag winning defender for the Next Generation Coaching Academy (NGCA). 

The two day course mixed forums and practical sessions, on a range of topics from nutrition to coaching philosophy, recruitment to high performance.

A North Melbourne initiative, the NGCA includes guest speakers from the AFL, Werribee Football Club, and the Western Jets, to help up-skill and develop coaches across Wyndham and North Melbourne, thus strengthening the future of the game.

The inaugural NGCA, was deemed a resounding success.