GOLD Coast is prepared to play a supercharged tall forward line this season as it welcomes Ben King back into the fold.

King is progressing well after rupturing his ACL a little over 12 months ago, and his return looks set to give coach Stuart Dew selection headaches ahead of round one.

Barring any mishaps in the next three weeks, 202cm King is a lock to play Sydney in the opening game of the season, but the rest of the forward mix is far from settled.

Mabior Chol (200cm) and Levi Casboult (199cm) are coming off career-best seasons, while Jack Lukosius (195cm) will also play forward in 2023.

Then there's 192cm Joel Jeffrey, who oozes talent, can mark well over his head, is one of the Suns' best field kicks and bagged five goals in an intraclub game last Friday.

Although it's unlikely all five could play in the same team, Dew said he was seriously considering playing four of them.

"With that bench spot and with the way Jack and Joel play, they're tall but very mobile, and even Mabior is very good at ground level," Dew told AFL.com.au last week before Thursday's match simulation hitout against Essendon.

"And Ben has kicked a lot of goals in general play rather than marking.

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"A lot of it is going to be how much we can hold it in there and a big onus on the smalls, but we'd love to have a look at that aerial firepower because they've got that ground level play as well, and smarts.

"It's going to be some headaches. If you double team one, someone's going to mark it."

Each player has their strengths. Chol, fresh off a 44-goal season, proved an excellent back-up to Jarrod Witts in the ruck, aside from his nous in the forward 50.

Casboult is seen as an ideal foil for King, who he is yet to play alongside. He kicked 35 goals last year and will happily crash packs and ensure King is left to battle his defender alone, unlike 2021, when he was often double and triple teamed.

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Then there's Lukosius, the former No.2 draft pick now settling forward, and at his best a great connector between the midfield and inside 50 with his vision and kicking skills.

Dew said he had no concerns about being too tall with four selected in the 22.

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"You're utilising that bench spot," he said.

"You look at other teams and you see they've got three talls, but if you break down their game time, sometimes in a 120-minute game you might have three talls on the ground for 10 minutes.

"Just having the centimetre gauge there isn't a true indication of their output.

"Joel is really dynamic at ground level and Jack can obviously find space as a medium or tall."

One change in the forward half that has to be made is finding a replacement for Izak Rankine, who left the Suns after four years to return to his home state and play for Adelaide.

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Mal Rosas jnr played 15 games last year and could be in for even more, while the club recruited Tom Berry, who can apply pressure as well as anyone with his speed and ferocity at the ball, from Brisbane.

Dew said players were "queueing up".

"We think we can cover that for sure and make sure we have multiple avenues to goal," he said.

"That was the beauty of last year, even without Ben (King) there we learned to play a different way, we had different avenues to goal, and some guys had career-best years, which was probably Mabior, Levi, Ben Ainsworth, those guys had outstanding years.

"We want to share the load, make sure we're unpredictable."

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Following 10 wins and a 12th-place finish last year, Dew said he was putting no limits on what the Suns could achieve.

"Everyone asks, 'What's the benchmark? How many wins?' And I'm always very reluctant, for one reason," he said.

"Collingwood is a good example. They were 17th (in 2021). If they were heading into last year going, 'Let's get 10 wins, let's get 11', they certainly don't finish fourth.

"I think it's the same message for our players. There's no ceiling here. We need to show our best every week, we think we can compete, we think we can win every week.

"Ultimately you never know what that (ceiling) is until you're right in it. Obviously, we want to set ourselves up to play in September, win in September … we want to play a finals style of game."