Jonathan Horn - Guardian Australia Sports Columnist (21.07.2026)

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**Mark Duffield** (1:03)
Jonathan Horn from the Guardian joins us on the show now. Jonathan, welcome.

**Jonathan Horn** (1:08)
Morning Duff, how are you, mate?

**Mark Duffield** (1:10)
I'm very well, thanks mate. I'm really surprised you stay on and agree to talk to us after we play that sting to bring you in. And I'm going to ask you to look for something different. Do you have any thoughts in mind? How can we get you in?

**Jonathan Horn** (1:23)
I'm actually warming to it.

**Mark Duffield** (1:24)
You're warming to it?

**Jonathan Horn** (1:26)
Yeah, I thought I'd say that about a piece of music like that, but it's growing on me very, very slowly.

**Mark Duffield** (1:35)
I think Paul Heath is just outside rubbing his nose, Ross Lyon style, I think, after my comments about that.

**Jonathan Horn** (1:43)
He plays some excellent music, so credit where it's due.

**Mark Duffield** (1:46)
He's a very, very learned musical enthusiast, is Paul Heath. Hey, Ken Hinkley will coach the Tasmanian Devils in their first year of AFL competition. Give us your thoughts on the appointment.

**Jonathan Horn** (2:01)
It's interesting, Duff, because I'm a bit of a contrarian, like a lot of people who gravitate to media work and so on. And my natural inclination is to, it feels like almost like a bit of a loving at the moment with Ken. And my natural inclination is sort of to push back on that a bit and sort of try and work out why that is and whether that's a good thing and whether he's the right fit. I think a lot of that at the moment, the way this has been spoken about and written about it at the moment, is the fact that a lot of people, a lot of us in the media have got the chance to work alongside Ken in recent months and seen what sort of person he is and got a sense of that warmth and that way he can make you feel like you're the most important person in the world when you're talking to Ken Hinkley. And he has that, he has that knack. And I think that's been a factor in the public narrative that we're seeing right now. Having said that, I think he's definitely the right candidate for this role. And I think that we'll probably touch on this in a bit. But I think a lot of that is to do if you compare him to the other two candidates, Longmire and Buckley.
I just think that Ken had certain traits and attributes that perhaps they didn't have. And I think that's been a factor in the decision that the devils have made him.

**Mark Duffield** (3:33)
So, I get the feeling that the fact that he has a reputation of being good with young players. And we saw that repeatedly in his time at Port Adelaide. He was prepared to punt on young players early in their careers when he felt they had a spot in the senior team. And he was prepared to persist with them and go with them in big games. And we saw that with a number of young players. And we've also seen him become this father figure to Zach Butters and to Connor Rosie and to Jason Horn Francis, and to a lesser degree, Mitch Georgiades. Do you think, given that he's gonna be working with a very young squad, was that a big factor in the decision, do you think?

**Jonathan Horn** (4:12)
I think absolutely. And it's because it's such an unusual job.
And the players that he's gonna be drafting, he's gonna have such a glut of young players. And like you say, he just has a track record of working really well with players like that. And not only with the players themselves, he has a track record of building connections with their families and with their managers and all the people who are important in their lives. And that's gonna be just abnormally important in a job like this because every club in Australia is gonna be circling these young players that he drafts, wanting to nab them back to the mainland. And I think that that stutes Hinkley in so many ways. Not only his ability to sort of build, as you say, build this connection with young people, which is a pretty incredible trait for a 59-year-old coach to be able to connect with an 18-year-old, I think that takes a really unique skill to be able to do that. We've seen that with Fagan in Brisbane, obviously.