Geelong assistant coach Steven King has been taken to hospital after collapsing during a Cats’ training session at GMHBA Stadium on Friday.
The players participating in the team’s captain’s run left the field as King received attention from club medical staff.
King is one of the three remaining candidates for the vacant West Coast coaching position. However, his focus remains firmly on the Cats’ finals campaign with Geelong to meet Brisbane in their preliminary final on Saturday afternoon.
Geelong assistant coach Steven King addresses the players during a match against Melbourne Demons. AFL Photos via Getty Images
The 45-year-old collapsed on the field while talking with colleagues and players.
He was quickly tended to by medical staff who later said they expected King to make a full recovery.
The club has since confirmed that King was conscious as he departed GMHBA Stadium.
Cats coach Chris Scott said King’s collapse was not life-threatening, though he would be unlikely to feature as part of the club’s coaching lineup on Saturday.
King remains under observation in hospital.
A former skipper of the Cats between 2003 and 2006, King played 193 games for Geelong — including the club’s 2007 premiership — before moving to St Kilda for the final three seasons of his career.
Steven King (centre) during his playing days with the Cats. Getty
The ruckman retired following the 2010 season after 15 years in the game.
King kicked off his coaching career at the Western Bulldogs in 2012, where he spent a decade under head coaches Brendan McCartney and Luke Beveridge.
He formed part of the Bulldogs’ coaching panel for the 2016 premiership, nurturing the club’s forward line, before being promoted to a senior assistant to Beveridge in 2019.
King was part of the club’s unsuccessful grand final crusade in 2021. The following year he joined Gold Coast as senior assistant to then-coach Stuart Dew.
The one-time All-Australian took over the club as caretaker coach for the final seven matches of the 2023 season after Dew was sacked.
Going full circle, King returned to Geelong in 2024.
