No new age of AFL attack: Port coach

Port coach Ken Hinkley has a message for those falling for a new-age dawn of freewheeling AFL footy.

Don't.

Defence is coming. Hinkley reckons the round-one bent towards high scores is temporary.

"If the game evolves a little and it becomes a little more high scoring, I think most people outside the fence would be pretty happy with that," Hinkley told reporters on Friday.

"Even (Crows coach) Don (Pyke) and myself would be pretty happy with that - if we were watching that game, not involved in it.

"I don't think it's a bad thing for the game of football.

"You watch though, teams will figure it out. Teams will get their defence right. And it won't be as freeflowing as it was last week."

Pyke, sitting next to Hinkley at a pre-Showdown media conference, said he was one of 18 coaches planning to stem the scoring.

"Whether it continues in the same way with the volume of scoring, I don't know," Pyke said.

"But clearly the first round suggested it was more open-ended, more inside 50s, more scores ... but from a team defence viewpoint, we want to stop the team scoring."