One of the most important positions on a football field is the ruck, and nobody understands that better than Steven King. 

An All-Australian, a two time Carji Greeves medallist and a Premiership ruckman, King certainly built an impressive resume across 193 games with Geelong.

Now an assistant coach with the Cats, King is helping the current team to solve their own ruck conundrum, with plenty of different options available in 2025. 

With Rhys Stanley set to take the lead once again this year, King also noted some other players who may feature through the middle at different stages. 

"We will see a little bit of Sam De Koning and a little bit of Mark Blicavs as well at times," King said.

"We have got options there, Scotty likes having as much flexibility in the team as we can and we feel like we have enough players to be able to do that.

"Mitch Edwards is one that has jumped up a little bit, he has had a great pre-season and shown signs. But again, he hasn't played a lot of football yet, so we need to make sure his growth and development is a priority over the short term.

"We will sit down and work out what the right balance is for him and all our rucks."

A number of young players have impressed over the pre-season, looking to take the next step and solidify their spot in the Cats starting 22. 

One name that has frequently been mentioned is Mitch Knevitt, who will be hoping to build on his current tally of 14 AFL games. 

King said that Knevitt has certainly put his best foot forward leading into 2025, and will be one for Cats fans to watch this year. 

"I hate singling players out to put pressure on them," King said. 

"But if you look at the evidence of some of our players that have done every session, that have been unconditional in the way they have gone about it, Mitch is certainly one of those. 'Knev' has been there, his form at VFL level has been outstanding.

"He is someone now that I think is ready to take his chance and we are going to need players like him, to raise the floor in our program to take the next step to be a premiership team again."