TOWERING Wagga footballer Max King has his sights firmly set on his AFL debut next year.
Two years into his time at AFL club Melbourne, King is home in Wagga to enjoy the Christmas break but has not lost focus of the task in front of him.
The Demons have shown their faith in him by extending his rookie-list contract for an extra year and King, who has just turned 20, wants to repay them by breaking into the senior team.
King’s wish for the new year is an AFL debut.
“To start the year off I’d like to play a couple of NAB Cup games, then obviously make my way into the senior team,” King said.
“I hope to play a couple of games. I don’t really have massive expectations on myself but if I was lucky enough to be playing well enough to get into the AFL team, I’d love to do it.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
King’s first two seasons at Melbourne have been fairly injury plagued.
He only managed five games in his first year due to a crack in his fibia and also a medial ligament knee injury.
King completed every session of the 2015 pre-season but then pinged a hamstring in the warm up of the first intra-club game.
He recovered, starting out in the development league and then progressing to VFL seniors, where he kicked 13 goals from eight games.
With two years experience under his belt, King said he is starting to feel at home at Melbourne.
“It’s been good, it’s probably got easier as it’s gone on,” he said.
“The pre-season’s seem to get easier. You’re a lot more prepared than the first few pre-seasons where you don’t really know what they’re going to throw at you, but you sort of get used to it I guess and you know that you’re going out there and get smashed every week and you prepare for it.”
King has also looked to set himself up off the field by establishing furniture company Max Jones Co with teammates Max Gawn and Matt Jones.
He said it is an exciting time to be at Melbourne as the Demons look to rise up the ladder in 2016.
