The speed at which Australian football is played will continue to increase, according to Adelaide coach Neil Craig, a sports scientist.

"There will be better conditioning, better execution and the higher (the level of) the execution, the greater the speed of the game," Craig said after the Crows had trained at AAMI Stadium on Thursday.

"Don't talk about leg speed. Talk about the movement of the ball. You've only got to look at the team that can put three plays together - bang, bang, bang - for the speed of the play.

"Execution and the demand for accuracy and the demand for excellence will get higher and higher and higher. That will increase the speed of the game. Different tactics will increase the speed of the game."

Should it get any quicker?

"It'll get quicker and it will be fantastic … you wait and see," Craig said.

But how will the players cope?

"They'll love it," he said.

When Craig was asked whether players were at their limit for skill execution, given that they were full-time professionals now - and goalkicking accuracy (or inaccuracy) had remained the same for years - he said: "No, I don't think we're anywhere near it.

"And I think the accuracy will be one of the next areas that someone attacks. That's just not technique, that's where you get it (the ball), what angle, what distance and then technique.

"Rhett Biglands missing that goal from nearly in the goal-square … that should not happen at this level. And you'll find as we spend more and more time on it, that won't happen.

"So things will change. I don't know what people are scared of - why we're scared of change. I reckon it's great."

Craig said he thought the recent rule changes had had 'a minimal effect' on the speed of the game in the regular season.

"I think some of the rules in the NAB Cup had a significant effect on playing speed," he said. "But I'm not so convinced about the proper rules, as we're playing now."

Asked whether he agreed with the general assessment of the past week that the game was quicker this year than last year, he said: "I'm not sure on that. Let's say that assumption is correct. What I'm suggesting is that's nothing to do with the rules.

"That might be better conditioning, it might be coaches saying to their players, 'I want you to play this game faster, I want you to play on quicker, I want you to get it into the forward line quicker'. That will increase the speed of the game."

And on how Adelaide matched up for pace with West Coast, its opponent at AAMI Stadium on Sunday, Craig said: "I don't really know, to be honest. I think it's a lot to do with how sides play rather than speed - whether they play with speed as distinct from leg speed.

"West Coast play with speed. They're a kicking side and they like to get the ball moving quickly … they play fast footy. And we like to think we can play that as well, so it'll be a good game."

Was he surprised by the reaction to the Crows' 'keepings-off' tactics late in the third quarter of the match against Collingwood at Telstra Dome last Monday night?

"To a certain extent, but I don't think there was anything happen there that we haven't seen before," Craig said.

"All I know is we were under siege and we just had to try to get possession of the ball. The good part about it was we were also able to still score during that time - we kicked 1.1, and that's always important as well - and I think the most important thing was that after three-quarter time we were able to get back and play good, strong, attacking footy again.

"If you go back and look at the history of invasion sports - soccer, basketball - you'll find there were rules brought in that were put into place to try to change the game.

"And once there's a rule put in that will change the game, you abide by it. While there's no rule, coaches will continue to do that. It's not a coaching issue. It's a typical evolution of the game. It's not new."