King on the plan for Monday's Match Simulation

We initially thought it was going to be a five or six quarter game, now I think it is back to four.

We would love to give everyone an opportunity, but we need to make sure that we get our preparation right for that game against Brisbane.

We will probably sit down today after training and work out who plays three quarters or a full game, how many we expose and how many we have ready to go.

We would love to replicate rotations as we would in a proper game. 

King on the Cats Availability

I think we have probably got seven or eight players that are unavailable, but we have a pretty fit squad.

Out of those there is a handful of first year players with loads, but we are healthy for where we are at this point in time.

It is a credit to our conditioning staff and the players in general, for what they have done over the off-season and Christmas break.

It has put them in the position to attack the opening round in three weeks time. 

King on Mitch Knevitt

I hate singling players out to put pressure on them.

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. 

King on the Ruck Conundrum 

A little bit of Sam De Koning and a little bit of Mark Blicavs as well at times.

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. 

King on Bailey Smith

Baz has been going well.

We probably had to hold him back a bit, but he has come in with a high intensity and done a lot.

He has been unrestricted since Christmas, he has been finding a lot of the footy and he is getting his head around playing different roles for us in a different system.

He is going to be great for us and what he can do for us as a club.