“I suspect that if he’s feeling good he’ll be disappointed to hear that news and even if he’s not feeling great he’ll be disappointed because he’s a competitor.

“But even at this pointy end of the season it reinforces to us what the right thing is over lesser priorities.”

“It’s upsetting and it has an impact on the players,” Scott said.

“I don’t take the view with these things that you’ve got to pretend that something isn’t happening. What we’ve got to do is just deal with where we are.

“Again, the feedback’s really positive, so we will do our best to focus on that positive, but it is quite confronting.”

King had been in Perth for an interview with West Coast and returned to Geelong on Thursday night.

Scott said King’s workload had “possibly” contributed to the medical episode.

“He is a workaholic but I don’t think it would be prudent for me to speculate as to the causes,” Scott said.

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“He has been working pretty hard and it is a stressful situation to be at this point of the season full-stop. But when you add in there is a bit of stress and excitement at the prospect that he could be facing over in Perth.

“I’ve only really known him well for 12 months but he’s a very resilient character. I’m confident he’ll bounce back.”

The Cats released a statement on Friday afternoon, saying King was conscious as he left GMHBA Stadium.

“Geelong Cats can confirm assistant coach Steven King had a medical episode at the team’s captain’s run session this morning,” the club said.

“Steven has been taken to hospital for further assessment and was conscious as he departed the stadium.

“The club’s priority is Steven’s health and we ask the media to please respect Steven’s and his family privacy. The club will provide further updates as they come to hand.”

King was Geelong skipper from 2003-2006 and played in the Cats’ drought-breaking premiership in 2007. He played under Ross Lyon at the Saints before beginning his coaching career alongside Brendan McCartney and Luke Beveridge with the Western Bulldogs, where he spent 10 years.

He was on the Bulldogs’ coaching panel when the club won the 2016 premiership and became a senior assistant to Beveridge in 2019, part of the coaching panel that led the club to the 2021 grand final. King then joined Gold Coast as senior assistant to Stuart Dew in 2022 before being the caretaker coach for the final seven matches of 2023 after Dew was sacked. He then left to return to Geelong in 2024.

While King interviewed for the vacant West Coast Eagles’ coaching job this week, his focus is on the Cats’ finals campaign. Collingwood assistant Hayden Skipworth, Melbourne assistant Andrew McQualter and King are on the final shortlist for the Eagles’ coaching job. Skipworth and McQualter interviewed with the Eagles on Thursday.

With AAP

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