Type of sporting grey coat (8)
I believe the answer is:
category
'type' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'sporting grey coat' is the wordplay.
'sporting' indicates an anagram.
'grey'+'coat'='greycoat'
'greycoat' is an anagram of 'CATEGORY'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for category that I've seen before include "Class or division of similar subjects" , "Kind" , "Class or order" , "Group of classified items" , "Grey coat (anag.)" .)