Dew backs red-hot King to keep rising
Gold Coast Suns coach Stuart Dew believes Ben King’s breakout performance will just be the beginning of his meteoric injury comeback.
However his return to form could have rival clubs on high alert.
The 22-year-old has slowly been working back into the speed of the AFL since returning in round 1, having missed all of last season upon suffering a ruptured ACL in the preseason.
However following a week in which he was linked to potential recruitment raids from Collingwood and St Kilda, King rebounded from his slumber to power the Suns to victory.
King remains contracted to the Glitter Strip until the end of 2024, but reports emerged last week that while the Magpies were contemplating a bid for the forward a reunion at the Saints with his brother Max could also be on the cards.
His five goals in Sunday’s 43-point win over the Kangaroos nearly doubled his season tally up until that point, and Dew declared it was a performance that had been building for some time.
And this, he said, was just the start of his rise back to prominence having at last figured out how far and hard he could push his body since his injury return.
“Any player that has a period of time out of the game, we found a couple of guys that have come into the season … the game is so hard now, it’s played at such speed and the demand is really high,” Dew said. “Kingy had a fantastic rehab in terms of finding out how hard he can work physically, and I reckon he’s just starting to work out how to put that into games. Importantly he’s never dropped his head and he’s never lost confidence in the work he’s done.”
King’s resounding performance against North Melbourne was soured by an injury to skipper Touk Miller, with the club revealing he would be sidelined for an indefinite period.
Miller suffered a lateral meniscus tear in his left knee.
“We expect him to miss a fair portion of footy,” Suns general manager of football performance Wayne Campbell said.