AFL: Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew hails injured forward Ben King’s re-signing as proof players believe in Suns’ future
Ben King won’t play for Gold Coast this season as he recovers from an ACL injury but he still provided a major boost for the Suns
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Fifth-year Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew believes injured forward Ben King’s re-signing is proof the players are starting to believe in the Suns’ direction.
King, one of the AFL’s best young key forwards, will miss the entire season after rupturing the ACL in his right knee in a marking contest at training in February.
But his decision to ink a two-year extension soon after that setback buoyed Gold Coast and removed a potential season-long distraction as the club plans for life without him in the short term.
“It’s clearly a positive. It’s further evidence that the team and the players, in particular, are buying into what we’re all building as a footy club,” Dew said.
“Even to wind back to when I first got the job; winning was always going to be the last piece of the puzzle when you’re building culture, connection and a group of people who are going to commit to something.
“That takes time and we made some decisions across the journey to cut the list pretty deep and Ben was part of that from the start, so it’s fantastic.
“It’s good reward for all the players and staff who have been part of this journey so far, that he can see a way forward.”
Recruits Levi Casboult and Mabior Chol will be part of the solution in the absence of King, whose 47 goals last season were the equal-10th-most in the competition.
King is back on the Gold Coast after undergoing his knee reconstruction in Melbourne.
“(Injuries are) a reality of sport, and that’s why we try and build a team not around one player as well,” Dew said.
“Kingy’s aware of that and the other guys are aware they’ve got to pick up (his) couple of goals every game from last year, so we’re trying to absorb that with the rest of the players.”
The Suns rounded out a promising pre-season with an upset defeat of Geelong in the Community Series and remain wary of injury-ravaged round 1 rival West Coast, particularly at Perth Stadium.
“We’re pretty strict on talking about who’s playing rather than who’s not playing,” Dew said.
“I think we’ve all, across the journey of our time in sport, or AFL, in particular, been bitten pretty badly by looking at who’s not in the team.
“This club and system won a premiership not that long ago and there’ll be a number of those players playing and some pretty handy players coming in ... they’ll be hungry.”
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Originally published as AFL: Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew hails injured forward Ben King’s re-signing as proof players believe in Suns’ future
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