EMMA King is excited by the prospect of lining up with fellow ruck and recruit Kim Rennie in the 2022 NAB AFLW season.
The North Melbourne vice-captain has been the primary ruck for the past few years, supported by now-departed pinch-hitters Viv Saad (Gold Coast) and Kate Gillespie-Jones (delisted).
But former Bulldog Rennie is a genuine ruck, leading to the pair forming a dangerous one-two attack at the head of an already formidable midfield containing Emma Kearney, Jasmine Garner, Ash Riddell, Jenna Bruton and Ellie Gavalas.
"It's great to have experience come in, especially in a role as specific as the ruck," King told womens.afl.
"Kim's come across from the Bulldogs with four years under her belt, we've got a good relationship as rucks and she's fit in nicely with our midfield.
"Just to have that depth in our talls and to be able to utilise both myself and Kim around the ground, we're actually really looking forward to the season ahead with two nice, confident talls."
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King's height (187cm) and in particular, her overhead reach, has made life difficult for defenders when she rests forward, kicking 18 goals from her 24 games at North Melbourne.
The addition of Rennie looks to guarantee more forward time for King in 2022, but the Roo was keeping her cards close to her chest.
"We'll see how the games play out. Ideally, I'll play a bit of forward and manage my game time, but we'll see how the games go," she said.
The 2022 season marks the second under coach Darren Crocker, and the Roos – having been perennial home and away heavyweights – are looking to take another step forward into serious flag contention.
"Last year was very much focused on building relationships and understanding his way of coaching and how we respond to different forms of coaching. Now we've got a season underway, our pre-season was solely focused on our game-plan and improving under 'Crock'," King said.
"Our mindset and full-squad mentality has been a focus. With COVID, it's going to be even more important that we're a full squad and everyone's raring to go. Everyone's going to play at some point, and it could be this week."
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King has just finished her sixth AFLW pre-season, having made the move from Western Australia as a marquee player for Collingwood at the age of 22.
"I'm just really embracing it. I'm now one of the senior players in age as well as games under my belt. It's just so exciting to see the new girls and talent coming through, they're raring to go," she said.
"To see our middle order players just improving week by week, year by year, the future of the AFLW is going to be amazing, and I'm so glad I'm still part of it."
