Finding the balance between offence & defence | The Art of Coaching with Ken Hinkley! (23.09.26)
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Why is balancing offense and defence the hot topic in AFL coaching right now?
You referenced just before the break there, offense might be king again. There's a bit of Malcolm Blight about this. It it feels to me no it's quite clear actually that across the co coaching groups of the competition, the active conversation already and right across summer has been trying to understand the balance between offense and defence and what has changed. What's your perception, particularly In light of what we just saw with that preliminary final.
Yeah, there's no doubt that, you know, your offense weapons are are gotta be elite. And if they're not elite now, you you probably can't win. But having said that, Jared, you've still got to be able to stack up pretty well in defense. I mean Brisbane's the outlier still. The other sides are still pretty solid in defense as far as, you know, just purely points against. You know, that they are very, very good at that.
How does Ken Hinkley define an “elite” offensive weapon for a premiership team?
You know, Crows and Frio and Sydney, they've always been pretty good at getting through Hawthorne. So you can go, okay, well, offense is king against the best the best teams if you can actually defend as well at to a s at to a level. And now I think what we get on the weekend is we do get the offensive shootout, hopefully, because um both teams can sort score quickly. And I think Brisbane take you into that game a little bit more than other sides. So the scoreboard makes you oh we've got to score, we've got to score whereas when you can be playing against some of the other sides, I'm sure you'd be sitting there going, oh yeah, we're okay. It's half time. It's forty five to thirty five, we're we're gonna
Okay, we don't need it. But when you're playing Brisbane at halftime it's prop it can be seventy to sixty. And if it's seventy to forty, you're too far back almost.
What challenges do developing teams face when playing an all‑out attacking style?
So you've got to play that game a little bit. But the challenges in that game, Jared, is for Grand final teams, it's fine. for emerging teams or or developing teams, it's not fine. It's just not fine. You just can't you just can't handle that that type of pressure when you um you're at a young developing team, I don't think. But for this weekend we can handle it.
Yeah. So Chris's view was the fastest way to get sacked at a team trying to rise is going to be to be all out offense and get scored against heavily and lose by sixty and seventy points every week. That's the fast track to getting sacked. But to win the premiership you've got to be able to score more than eighty points against Brisbane.
Why could a high‑scoring shootout against Brisbane be the key to a Grand Final win?
So what that that is it puts us at such an intriguing moment as supporters, viewers, callers of the game. What a beautiful moment to arrive at.
Yeah, I love the game being clearly my my my time would suggest I like playing the game reasonably attacking and quick. Um always been fundamentally pretty sound in defence, though. We've never been you know, we we have one year I th one or two years where we drop out of the top seven or eight in points against, but we're always pretty sound. But I think Sometimes when we purely look at it, we think defence is king, but if you've got ball in hand, Jared, it's hard for the Oppo to score. It's maintaining the ball. That's the challenge. If you can use the ball, and Brisbane use the ball very well because they're kick and catch, they don't actually turn the ball over that much in too many dangerous spots.
Whereas if you're playing an aggressive brand of football, and and what Chris has referenced to is I think, you know, if you're a younger team or a developing team, your your turnover levels are probably a bit higher. So and if you turn 'em over in the wrong spot.
How does ball retention versus turnover affect a team’s defensive reputation?
It is a quick way to get sacked because the scoreboard just kills it. The scoreboard gets everyone. Malcolm told me that once, actually. He said the scoreboard gets every everyone. Ken, don't worry about it. The scoreboard will get you at some point. And that's exactly what does happen. And, you know, uh Chris is a clearly the most experienced coach and great coach. And he knows. He he hopes that the I would imagine if he was playing the lesser team, he hopes they go for the shootout game.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why is balancing offense and defence the hot topic in AFL coaching right now?
0:00–0:48
2
How does Ken Hinkley define an “elite” offensive weapon for a premiership team?
0:48–1:33
3
What challenges do developing teams face when playing an all‑out attacking style?
1:33–2:10
4
Why could a high‑scoring shootout against Brisbane be the key to a Grand Final win?
2:10–3:08
5
How does ball retention versus turnover affect a team’s defensive reputation?
3:08–3:40
6
What lessons did Ken learn from coaches like Chris, Craig McRae and Malcolm Blight about game‑plan flexibility?
3:40–4:42
7
How should experienced teams lean into offense while younger squads stay grounded in defence?
4:42–5:17
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Whateley
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