Steven King could lead his side on to the ground much earlier than expected with the Cats skipper setting his sights on a Wizard Cup return.

Speaking after competing in the Lorne Pier-to-Pub swim on Saturday, King said his troublesome achilles tendon had responded well to a training session last Friday after receiving a cortisone injection.

The ruckman is hopeful of lining up for the Cats in their Wizard Cup encounter against Port Adelaide in Cairns in six weeks.

This comes just days after Cats coach Mark Thompson said King would not resume full-scale training until the start of the Wizard Cup. However, King is optimistic of making an appearance in the Cup.


"Yeah I hope so, whether it's a full game or just a half,'' King said after completing his swim.

"I feel good now but I'm not going to get carried away.

"If I'm ready to go in the Wizard Cup that would be great but if not it's not the end of the world, I've still got another month to go before the season.

"The achilles is really good actually, I just had another jab, a cortisone in the fat pad behind the achilles tendon and it's been really good since that and I trained on Friday and got through it feeling really good so I'll just gradually build it up for the next six weeks,'' he said. ``After the session on Friday it felt really good and hopefully I can just build it up now and get a solid six weeks under my belt.''

King, who also swam in last week's Danger 1000 event, was the only Geelong player to compete in the Pier-to-Pub, completing the 1.2km swim in 20min 15sec.

"I've done a little bit of swimming with the achilles and I did the Danger 1000 last week and I was just lucky that the club gave me an opportunity to come here and swim, the rest of the boys did a swimming session in Geelong,'' he said.

King said the squad was raring to go after the Christmas break.

"Obviously personally it was disappointing last year and I'm hoping to come back and be able to, fingers crossed, play every game this year and contribute every week,'' he said.

The captain said fellow ruckmen David Loats and Paul Chambers have impressed during pre-season and expects Loats to have an impact up forward.

"Big Loatsy's got great skill and I think he's going to add a bit either in the ruck or up forward and Paul Chambers, obviously he just has a crack at it and he's been getting a lot stronger in the gym and he's ready to have a crack again this year,'' King said.