“A top two or three player”: King’s huge Rankine call as midfield minutes increase

David King has been so impressed by Izak Rankine in recent weeks.

The Adelaide star was massive in Sunday’s 90-90 draw with Brisbane, collecting 24 disposals and five clearances to go with three goals.

While Rankine was already a star small forward, he’s seen his midfield minutes increase substantially since Round 5 and King believes that move that could see him become one of the competition’s absolute elite players sooner than you’d think.

King thinks that Rankine could join the likes of Sydney’s Isaac Heeney and Collingwood’s Nick Daicos in the top three players in the comp currently as he creates maximum damage from his disposals.

“From that game, the Crows I think have got a guy in two or three weeks … it may even be at the end of this week if he has that performance again,” King said on SEN Mornings.

“In about four weeks’ time, I think we'll be talking about Izak Rankine as a top two or top three player in the comp.

“In the last six weeks of footy, he's gone to the middle and I'm a big fan of guys that create scores from clearances. I talked about Nick Daicos last night and what he's doing … but in the last six weeks, he's top five in the comp for ball use. He’s getting a damaging and impactful return from his ball use.

“He’s behind guys like Isaac Heeney and Daicos and there's some numbers that are fattened from some of the Dogs players because of their win on Saturday night. That's good company.”

While Rankine has seen his midfield minutes increase, King wants to see that spike again to help him get the ball in his hands more often than he currently does.

King envisions Rankine having as big of an impact as Heeney has since his switch on-ball this season.

“In the last six weeks, his 22 clearances have become eight scores. He's one score behind Rory Laird in that period who's had 50 per cent more won clearances,” King said.

“This guy is still only playing 35 per cent midfield. I think they’ve got to lift that rating.

“They got to look at what Heeney is doing and give him the Heeney opportunities for the Heeney return … his 35 per cent has to become 70 per cent.

“He has to be forward less. Avail him to more disposals and more possessions because he's probably one of the top two or three greatest threats in the game right now.

“They know what they've got. Give him more opportunity, take him to the action more and let him do his thing.

“I'm telling you, in three weeks’ time we'll be saying, ‘Where is he?’.

“I still think they're chasing Heeney, Daicos has made some ground and I think Rankine is sitting one out and one back ready to swoop.”

Rankine will get the chance to test himself against Daicos when the Crows face the Magpies at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.