John Chaney, former head coach of Temple University, is the most famous proponent of this defense.
The introduction of zone defenses faced resistance from players, including Michael Jordan.
"[3] Other great players, such as Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Tracy McGrady have also confirmed that zone defenses made scoring more difficult compared to the 1990s NBA.
[4] The defensive three-second violation rule made it a little more difficult for teams to play zone, since such defenses usually position a player in the middle of the key to stop penetration, but teams adapted by teaching bigs to quickly exit and re-enter the paint, and by running schemes that legally reset the three-second timer.
The zone defence tactic, borrowed from basketball, was introduced into Australian football in the late 1980s by Robert Walls and revolutionized the game.
This makes it easier for them to block leading players and forces the kick-in to be more precise, in effect increasing the margin for error which can cause a turnover and another shot at goal.
As a result, the best ways to break the zone are for the full-back to bomb it long (over 50 meters), often requiring a low percentage torpedo punt, or to play a short chipping game out of defence and then to switch play as opposition players break the zone.