O'Brien stopped short of declaring King will feature in his squad for Sunday's clash against the Bulldogs after again naming him on an extended bench on Tuesday.

But he indicated he is not far away from being rewarded for his whole-hearted efforts on the training paddock and could land himself a bench spot, possibly at the expense of Pasami Saulo, over the next couple of weeks.

"Kingy can't do much more than he is right now," O'Brien said. "He's been training the house down, doing extras every day and been real impressive.

"I'll see how Pasami is and whether we believe it is in his best interests to have a spell. At this stage, it's probably going to be between him and Kingy for a bench spot for the Bulldogs but I'll probably wait until the end of the week to make a call on it."

The possible inclusion of King would be the only change to the squad that hung on grimly to hold off the South Sydney Rabbitohs last Saturday night at Bankwest Stadium.

O'Brien has named the same starting side, leaving Mitch Barnett on the bench despite his rousing return from a long-term injury against the Bunnies.

Whether that's where he starts against the Bulldogs remains to be seen.

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O'Brien recognises the danger the lowly Bulldogs will present on Sunday but says his side has already learned the pitfalls of taking a rival lightly after being ambushed in Townsville by the Cowboys.

"I'd like to think we've already had that lesson and learnt it," he said. "Every week, we need to get better and that's been the focus for us. Improvement is the bottom line for us.

"We are in a good position and put ourselves there but it won't mean anything if we don't keep developing our game.

"We need to get better than we were against Souths and regardless of who we are playing and where they stand on the ladder, we are going after the two points and need to get the best out of ourselves to get them.

"It all boils down to us. We need to keep improving. We've been win one, lose one, win one, lose one. And it's not just consistency from week to week, it is consistency over the full 80 minutes.

"The good sides string back-to-back wins together and we are yet to show we can consistently do that. That's the challenge - improvement and consistency."

After a tough first half of the season, the Knights face a less arduous run home with four of their next five and five or their next seven games to be played at home.

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