Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick insists he wants Ben King to stay, but is adamant his club has “also got some things in place” if the key forward exercises his free agency rights.
The Age reported on Tuesday night that King, who remains unsigned beyond this season, was set to nominate Hawthorn as his preferred destination. The report suggested King planned to reject the Suns’ long-term offer, with intentions to sign a six-year Hawks deal.
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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Hardwick said he hadn’t spoken to King about his footy future, declaring: “The contract stuff I sort of leave out of it. I just speak about where he is in our organisation.”
But Hardwick said King was “within his rights” to explore free agency.
“What we do know as a club, we’re prepared and we’d love for him to stay, but we’ve also got some things in place if he does tend to leave,” the Suns coach said. “That’s the art of list management; you can’t have all your eggs in one basket.
“We’ve got some things in place if he does happen to explore that option. But we’d love for him to stay.
“He’ll make his call at some stage, probably towards the back-end of the year.”
Asked how important it was for the Suns to retain King, Hardwick said: “Oh look, it is important. But it also won’t be the end of the world if Ben leaves.
“We’ve got magnets in place that we’ve got having conversations on a weekly basis with players trying to get them to come to our footy club. Last year we brought in Christian Petracca, the year before that we brought in Daniel Rioli.
“You’ve got to be prepared to lose a couple every now and then, as much as we’d love for them to stay, but what we do know is we’re very capable of bringing players in.
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“We’re not where we want to be at the moment. But I think people look at our list and the make-up of our list, people will go: ‘This is going to be a pretty good club for a long period of time.’”
Asked if he’d sensed a change in King’s attitude, Hardwick said: “No, absolutely not.
“The one thing about ‘Kingy’, you wouldn’t know that this is a part of his everyday life. He’s been outstanding … Even if he’s made his decision, he will still be the same guy that shows up every day, smile on his face, works his backside off for this footy club.
“He’s been incredible for the eight or nine years that he’s been here and he’ll be incredible … until his time finishes with us. He’s been a pleasure to coach, he’s an outstanding human and you know we’d love to have him.”
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At Hawthorn, coach Sam Mitchell stopped short of speculating how the Hawks would manage the competition’s fiercest forward line next season.
Jack Gunston and Mitch Lewis re-signed in the same 24 hours, just days after The Age reported King had selected Hawthorn as his preferred free agency destination.
Mitchell often jokes with the media about team selection, pointing to the 6.20pm mandatory release, and he reverted to that again on Thursday morning.
“Is there speculation about that? I hadn’t heard that one,” Mitchell joked, when asked about King.
“I think 6.20 in six months’ time, that’s when you’ll find out about what we’ll do with the forward line.
“Whatever it looks like, there’s so much water to go under the bridge between now and whatever that looks like next season.
“First and foremost we’ll be very heavily focused on the players that are within these walls right now, making sure we can get the best out of them in the finals campaign in front of us.”
The re-signings and potential addition leaves exciting young forward Calsher Dear down the pecking order.
But Mitchell is urging patience with the 20-year-old, praising his hard work in the reserves.
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“I mean his game on the weekend was really good,” he said.
“We’ve been working on a few things and there’s always a lag effect to learning and when you try some things with a player like Calsher.
“He’s 20 years old (as) a key forward, I’m really pleased with his progress and he jumped out of the blocks as an 18-year-old.
“Then he’s had some injury and hasn’t done a full pre-season, so with someone like him he’s every chance coming in as soon as this week.
“But his form on the weekend was a big step in the right direction for what we’re after from him, so I’m pleased with how he’s developing.”
— with NCA NewsWire