Steven King's dad alerted him to an outstanding local talent running around for Shepparton earlier this year.
His name was Kane Tenace but the wrap came with a rider that he would not be around in the draft long enough for Geelong to pick him up.

But Tenace was still available and was snapped up by the Cats at pick number seven in the draft.

Yesterday he had his first tour of the club and met up with a fellow Shepparton recruit in King.

The Cats skipper said the arrival of the new recruit reminded him of his move to Geelong as a 16-year-old.

"It reminds me of myself, getting drafted from Shepparton High and coming down to Geelong, he's from the same local club that I was from and my father has a lot to do with that club and my brother has played there,'' King said.

"They all told me during the year how good Kane was, but they were all saying how you won't have a chance of picking him up at pick seven, he'll probably go earlier than that so I'm rapt for him to get down here.''

Tenace described Geelong as his preferred destination among clubs and arriving five days earlier than officially required.

"I just couldn't wait I suppose, plus I'm going away next week for a few days so I thought it would be good just to come down for a couple of days now and get to know my way around,'' Tenace said.

Coach Mark Thompson couldn't hide his delight at snaring the exciting onballer and said he's capable of playing 10 senior games in 2004.

"He's fast and exciting and a good ball user, I've watched his tape and no-one ever tackled him because he was running away from them and he just adds something that we haven't got a lot of,'' Thompson said.

"The blokes with the genuine speed, and Ablett's got speed, Bartel's quite quick although he doesn't play quick, Judd, those types of boys seem to be able to play pretty quickly, and Kane's quick.

"We'll just ease him in, similar to what we did with Bartel and Ablett and Kelly and Steve Johnson, he's probably capable of playing 10 games next year.

"We've drafted a lot of kids to this club over four years and none of them have not played because they've broken down and the reason why is because we just monitor them pretty closely, they'll probably do half the training a regular player would do.''

Tenace has also placed considerable expectation on himself for a first-year player, but he thinks he's ready to make the grade.

"I think that if I have a good pre-season I should be ready to play straight away, hopefully,'' he said.

"That would be great if I could play straight away but in the end I've got to do all I can over pre-season and the coaching staff have to make that decision.''

He said strength and endurance are the departments he needs to target over the summer if he's to make an impact at senior level.