He was born in Manly, went to school across the road from Brookvale Oval, played all his junior footy on the Northern Beaches and grew up idolizing his heroes - on Monday night Jason King will live out his boyhood dream when he leads out his beloved Sea Eagles as co-captain.
It’s fair to say that King has maroon and white running through his veins.
The Belrose Eagles Junior always aspired to play in the famous colours of Manly, little did he know he was a local kid destined to become a local hero.
After winning a Premiership with the team he had supported from childhood in 2008, the proud clubman admits he was overwhelmed when Coach Des Hasler announced him as co-captain with Jamie Lyon before the start of the 2010 campaign.
“It is an enormous honour,” King said,
“I grew up supporting the Manly Sea Eagles in the mid 90s, went to school across the road and obviously was a local junior, so when Des (Hasler) told me, I was pretty emotional and it was just a massive, massive thrill.”
King grew up playing on the grounds on the Northern Beaches imitating his heroes Mark Carroll, Nik Kosef, Steve Menzies and Geoff Toovey.
Winning a Premiership was the ultimate dream come true, but to do it playing alongside childhood hero Menzies and being trained by Sea Eagles legends Hasler and Toovey – it doesn’t get much better than that.
“It was massive, just great to be playing alongside those guys, I idolized them growing up,” he said,
“It was like a fairytale even to run on the same field as them, so to achieve a premiership with them is unreal.”
On Monday night, the next chapter of King’s amazing story will be written.
The Sea Eagles clash with a revamped Wests Tigers outfit at the Sydney Football Stadium and King along with Lyon are charged with steering Manly into one of the most open Premiership races in recent memory.
“It’s going to be great running out there (as captain), we have been training so hard for the entire preseason and we are just so happy the season has come around,” he said.
“We have put in the hard work and we’re ready to go, I don’t know if it’ll be too emotional, I’ll just be out there to play hard and play consistently.”
A typically measured and modest response for a player living out the Rugby League dream.
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