New Richmond rookie Jacob King can certainly be classified as having undergone a meteoric rise into the big time.The youngster, whose playing style is compared by Tigers coach Terry Wallace with that of St Kilda hardman Steven Baker, was playing suburban football just 18 months ago."He was running around playing in the Diamond Valley League with North Heidelberg and I think he is pinching himself to think he was there 18 months ago and now he is on the rookie list of an AFL club," Wallace said."He has done the hard yards and when you are making these decisions you are always looking at a bloke who deserves his opportunity."Wallace said he hopes King, a small back pocket player, handles the step up to the AFL the same way he handled his rise from the Diamond Valley to the VFL last season."He went from playing in the Diamond Valley to winning the best and fairest last year at Coburg and that's a fair jump in itself," Wallace said."And we thought if he can make that same leap again into AFL footy then he deserves that opportunity."Wallace said King's playing style would appeal greatly to Richmond fans."He is a small back pocket player and I suppose if you liken him to anyone he plays a bit similarly to Baker at St Kilda and if he can do anywhere near as good a job as he does, he will be a fantastic player for this footy club.""He is a real warrior in the way he goes about his footy and now he gets his chance and that is pleasing."Wallace said the decision to give King a place on the rookie list also showed how serious the Tigers are taking their association with Coburg."The other pleasing thing for us is we have always seen our VFL club as being not a place to park senior, mature age players because we see it as being a development area," he said."We are trying to get as many young kids down to Coburg with (former Hawthorn premiership player) Andy Collins coaching them and it shows out when one of their own gets the opportunity to get selected (by Richmond)."It shows (to a young hopeful) that if you go down there and put your head down we will pick you because you are part of us."