By Jake Niall
A lucrative offer to Ben King from the Gold Coast has not changed at all despite his season-ending knee injury, as Victorian clubs circle the young star key forward.
Sources familiar with King’s contractual situation confirmed that Gold Coast had informed his management that their offer would not be altered with any new conditions based on injury - a recognition of King’s enormous market value and the certainty that several Victorian clubs, including St Kilda and Collingwood, would not be deterred by his knee reconstruction.
Ben King fires up for the Suns, with Touk Miller.Credit: AFL Photos
The Suns have had their offer - a minimum of two years - on the table for some time, and they have been confident that he would re-sign, given his happiness with the club and teammates. Clearly, they would secure King for longer than a two-year term if he was willing to sign on.
St Kilda has long been viewed as the club at the front of the queue if King decides to return home to Melbourne because the Saints offer him the opportunity to again play with his equally talented twin Max, who successfully overcame a knee reconstruction before being drafted.
Ben King has drawn the interest of a number of Melbourne-based AFL clubs.Credit: AFL Photos
At least four or five Victorian clubs are lining up for King in the event - though unlikely at this stage - that he decides to return to Melbourne. The rarity of key forwards of his size, talent and mobility mean, as industry list management sources said, he would command an average of at least $900,000 per season from rival clubs over a long term if he wanted to leave.
That Max King has recovered so well from his knee reconstruction - retaining his remarkable mobility for a 202-centimetre key forward - is another reason for the Suns and any suitors to be confident that his brother will do likewise.
Ben King is yet to have the surgery, having injured the knee in match simulation last week. He has returned home to Melbourne to have the operation.
In King’s absence, Jack Lukosius is expected to shift from defence to take up a key forward slot with the Suns, who picked up Carlton’s versatile veteran Levi Casboult as a rookie as insurance for losing a key tall.
King is in his fourth year with the Suns, who drafted him at pick No.6 in the same national draft in which they picked Lukosius and Izak Rankine, the South Australian pair who are also coming out of contract this year in what shapes as a pivotal season for the club.
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