Geelong coach Chris Scott reveals Steven King fought to be at preliminary final and feeling ‘good’

Geelong coach Chris Scott says assistant Steven King is feeling “good” after collapsing at Cats training on the eve of their preliminary final with Brisbane and spending a night in hospital.

The veteran assistant, who is also believed to be one of the front runners to take over the vacant coaching role at West Coast, sent shock waves through the club when he suffered a medical episode while talking to star forward Jeremy Cameron on Friday.

He had only returned to Geelong the night before after a whirlwind trip to Perth to interview at the Eagles.

Despite the scary scenes, Scott revealed King had been working towards being able to attend Saturday’s cutthroat preliminary final after being released from care at the MCG but said his recovery was more important.

“The good news is he’s feeling good. I’ve spoken to him and had conversations with him,” he told Fox Footy ahead of the clash against Brisbane.

“He’s disappointed that he’s not going to be here tonight; in fact, he was fighting really hard to be, but all things considered, it’s not the right thing for him.

“Although I reckon he will be in contact with the people who are allowed to have phones all night, he will be bugging us.

“One of the things that’s not well understood in the modern game is the fact that 95 per cent of the work is done before game time, so he’s an asset in the box that hopefully we can cover for tonight.”

Former Brisbane Lion Nigel Lappin, who has been a long-time Geelong assistant coach, will step up from his current development role as his team fight ro join Sydney in next weekend’s decider.