"While it may not be the flashiest or a Champions League draw, the anticipation is still there," he said.
"There's still a bit of magic."
Although getting a team from their own grade, rather than a lower tier opponent like their opening round Cup fixture against Port Hill United in Napier, King felt it mattered little in the grand scheme of the knockout tournament.
Athletic have already stepped down from Chatham Cup level this year in order to make a stronger run in the mid-year Cup competition.
"It's always nice to have drawn a team potentially from a lower grade because you have an easier step through – theoretically," King said.
"But that [Port United game] happened."
In Napier on May 11, Athletic had to come back in both regulation time and extra time to get the last goal and force a 4-4 draw, going on to win the game on penalty shootout 4-3.
"When you come up against those teams from the lower grades, the whole underdog thing comes out," King said.
"If you don't want a few extra weekends off, you have to win the game.
"There was a potential Marist and ourselves would have been drawn on [Wembley at] the same time, and I'd happily give up the No 1 ground to them, because I think they deserve it."
King was a proud Marist club member before focusing on his coaching role with Athletic.
Facing a bit of an unknown with Hokowhitu, having yet to play them in League competition, King felt it was best to look to their own recent history.
The four goals against Port United aside, Wanganui have managed only five goals from six games in their League matches for a 1-2-3 record, which includes a -6 points differential.
Hokowhitu have been slightly worse, playing seven games with a 1-1-5 record and struggling mightily on defence, scoring seven goals but conceeding 27.
To that end, King admitted his team spent "maybe 99 percent" of their two training sessions this week on shooting.
"It's that simple, we made it very tough [on ourselves].
"While we can play as pretty as possible...we still have to put the ball in the back of the net.
"We just got to go out and worry about our game.
"There's some of our guys that have been prolific goal scorers – you think about the likes of Ryan Holden, and even Jude [Hiri], and Scott Burney was for a couple of seasons.
"Just to remind themselves that it's possible to complete that task."
Wanganui City knew where they were going before their name was even called, as it was the last capsule left in the bowl, which followed on from being second-last in the previous draw to get the initial bye.
Sizing up the rest of the opposition left and preparing to play a team at least one tier down in the Taranaki Premiership, the Cup has City's full attention.
"Looking at where we are on the [League] table, it's the only silverware we can get this season," said co-coach Anthony Bell.
"From a Whanganui prospective, I do hope the Whanganui teams all do well in the Cup."
If Athletic should prove Hokowhitu's superior, while Marist pull off a giant-killing against Rangers, then a City victory in Hawera would leave three local teams in the final eight, thus increasing the chances of a home game in the next round.
"We will go [up] there and get our job done first," said Bell.
"Overall, pretty confident, we have done our homework on Hawera."
Being Cup, both teams are able to draw on extra players – City will be taking three youngsters from the teams supervised by former 1sts coach Kelvin Francis, giving them a five player bench.
Hawera, meanwhile, have teams in both the Taranaki Premiership and Championship – their leading team in Premiership sits mid-table with a 3-2-2 record.
Notably, that Hawera outfit has banged home 16 goals but conceded 15, suggesting they like an open game but are vulnerable at the back.
"You have to go in positive," Bell said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if we bag a lot of goals."
Similar to Athletic, City have spent their training week in full-on attack mode, after the embarrassment of their previous 5-0 League defeat to Palmerston North Marist, where they had more chances in front of goal than their opposition but squandered the lot.
"We just lacked that killer instinct, so at training we're just doing more around that."
The Cup fixtures on Monday kickoff at 2pm.
Before that, the eight-team GR Engineering Federation Cup 2019 takes centre stage on Sunday as Team Ritesh Football Whanganui host the Massey University FC Women at Wembley Park, kickoff at 1pm.
