As the Parramatta Eels start to emerge from their recent injury mini-crisis, back-up hooker turned key man Cam King says he is comfortable with whatever decision the coach makes around the blue and gold No.9 jersey moving into the finals.
King has been an important and underrated performer of Parramatta's charge to a top four finish, being on the winning team in eight of his nine games for the club and quickly graduating to an 80-minute role.
Not until lately has King had the shadow of former first-choice No.9 Kaysa Pritchard to deal with though, with Pritchard pushing through what was initially feared to be a season-ending injury to become available for selection.
King said coach Brad Arthur had yet to give him much indication of how that selection duel would play out in the coming weeks.
"He said I had the job this week and that could change next week, I'm not sure," King said.
"Brad's an honest guy and whatever he chooses to do I'll fully respect. That's up to him.
"When I came into the team I just wanted to do my job to the best of my ability and I feel like I've done that and like I said it's up to Brad with whatever way he wants to go from now."
King has had to endure a horror injury run to be where he is now and has clearly benefited from a solid run of regular NRL football.
"I feel like I've got more confident each week and I'm back being confident at this level and to have this string of games leading into the semis, it's massive for myself," he said.
He was also hopeful of playing in what would be his first NRL Telstra Premiership Finals appearance.
"It's obviously exciting [to finish top four] and it's a good reward for the effort that's been put in all year. We get a crack at the semi-finals and it's a whole new ball game," King said.
Like his teammates, King knew the team would need to improve significantly on what they displayed against the Rabbitohs to compete with the Storm but backed the blue and golds to compete with any club on their day.
"I think we all understand that it wasn't good enough [in the first half against Souths] and if we want to make a real dent in September we need to fix up a couple of areas but in saying that it's probably good to have a good tough game leading into the semis," he said.
"There's areas we need to work on but there were areas we were good as well.
"On our day we can match it with anyone. The style of footy we play is really attacking and if things can go our way in a game and we get a bit of luck I think the way we play and the way we attack, I think we can make a dent."
