GEELONG assistant Ken Hinkley has for the first time publicly thrown his hat into the ring to become an AFL coach.

The quietly-spoken Hinkley, who has revamped Geelong's forward line during the club's current dominant run, has been mooted as a potential senior coach in recent weeks.

While being pumped up by others at Skilled Stadium, the man himself is rarely heard from in media circles.

Now, with two senior positions now vacant at Richmond at North Melbourne, Hinkley has indicated he might be ready to make the step up from assistant to the man in charge come game day.

"Like any assistant coach in the system, you'd have interests in those sorts of jobs, because that's why you start out in the (coaching) game," Hinkley told The Geelong Advertiser.

"My stance on it all is, as an assistant coach, you always have interests in those opportunities, if they come about.

"But predominantly my role and my job this year is all about doing a great job for the Geelong footy club and hopefully getting us an opportunity to participate late into the finals again."

Hinkley played 132 AFL matches, including 11 for Fitzroy, but it was as an exciting, often-spectacular half-back flanker that he made his name at Geelong. He was a dual All-Australian in his time at the Cats.

Since his playing days he has been an assistant to Mark Thompson for more than five seasons, and was also part of Malcolm Blight's ill-fated coaching team at St Kilda in 2001.

However he has been in charge of his own teams before, having coached premiership teams at Camperdown (in the Hampden Football League) and Bell Park (in the Geelong Football League.

Last month, Cats senior coach Thompson endorsed Hinkley for a senior role when he told afl.com.au his right-hand man was capable of becoming a League coach.

"If he's not Geelong's next coach, and he happens to get a job somewhere else, well, I think he's more than ready," Thompson said.

"I certainly don't want to lose him, but I understand that he deserves to be a senior coach."