Ben King makes it official: He wants to join Hawthorn

Free agent full-forward Ben King has confirmed what has long been expected by asking for a move to Hawthorn.

King previously told Gold Coast he wanted to leave as a restricted free agent this year, but had not told the club where he wanted to go. His manager Robbie D’Orazio officially told the Suns last week that King wanted to move to the Hawks.

King, who was in tears in the Suns rooms after the club’s last game of the season, had agonised over the decision to leave. He was at the club’s best and fairest award on Saturday night, where he surprisingly finished outside the top 10.

King finished third in the Coleman Medal with 60 goals, behind Charlie Curnow with 69 and Logan Morris, 63.

Hawthorn is hoping the Suns do not match the contract terms they have offered to the restricted free agent and in so doing would accept the free agency compensation pick for losing him; a pick which currently stands to be selection seven in the national draft.

The Suns had warned all year they would match any bid for King and force a club to trade for the highly valued player, but that picture was complicated by their drop down the ladder this season, which now means a compensation pick for King at seven is much earlier than they had anticipated it would have been 12 months ago.

Pick seven in the draft – even allowing for father-son and academy bids on Dougie Cochrane and Cody Walker pushing that pick out to selection nine – is still a better level of compensation than anything Hawthorn would be likely to come up with in a trade.

If the Suns do not match the King offer and take the compensation pick, the Hawks will have their first round draft pick, which could be used as part of a trade for former Essendon captain Zach Merrett.

Slightly complicating this picture is the fact the Suns will bring in veteran Scott Pendlebury on a two-year deal. The AFL warned the club that, despite the games record-holder being the oldest player in the competition, if he comes to the Suns on a two-year $700,000-a-year contract, it risked diluting any compensation they received for losing King.

If that proved to be the case, and their compensation for King was be pushed back in the draft to the end of the first round, it would be an incentive for the Suns to force a trade with Hawthorn. Were that to occur Hawthorn’s trade for Merrett would be complicated, as their first-round pick would not be available to help secure the Bomber.

The stronger likelihood is the Suns would seek to do a minor trade for Pendlebury with Collingwood, rather than accepting him as a free agent, a move that would preserve their compensation for King leaving.