Reece McKenzie celebrates on of his 10 goals against Eastern Ranges 9/7/2014.
Northern Knights power forward Reece McKenzie dreaming of AFL career after chasing college basketball dreamHerald-Sun
November 16, 2014 IT WAS December 22, 2013, and Reece McKenzie was nervously pacing around his family home in Warrandyte.
It was not because Christmas was just around the corner but instead because the then 17-year-old’s future was potentially about to take a major turn.
Having turned his back on football 12 months earlier to pursue a dream of playing US college basketball, McKenzie and his father Warren had arranged a meeting with Northern Knights talent manager Peter Kennedy and coach Andrew Shakepeare.
It was there that McKenzie would signal his desire to rejoin the TAC Cup club for his final year of underage football in a bid to make it big in the AFL.
“I was really nervous going into it, but Peter pretty much welcomed me back with open arms,” McKenzie said.
“Last year I just saw an opportunity to pursue a basketball career. It’s always been a dream of mine to play college basketball in America and with my build it’s not the hardest thing to do in the world, so it was quite a realistic goal.
“But I guess the politics of basketball really wear you down after a while. It gets you, and I guess I sort of saw football as the saviour.”
McKenzie had juggled both sports before last year and was considered a top talent in both.
He made his first state basketball team at under-12 level and went on to play in Vic Metro’s under-16 team alongside this year’s likely No. 1 draft pick, Christian Petracca.
At the same time he was a member of the Knights’ under-16 Max Richardson squad and made the initial Vic Metro under-16 side in 2012. But when things began to get more serious last year, McKenzie solely pursued basketball before opting to go back to football.
“It’s been a good outcome so far,” Kennedy said of the switch.
A power forward likened to Tom Hawkins, McKenzie has been described by his coach Shakepeare this year as a “man mountain”.
Standing 196cm tall and weighing 106kg, it is easy to see why.
But despite his size — and the fact he did not start pre-season training until January — this man mountain is remarkably mobile, which is part of the reason he has been drawing the attention of AFL clubs in the lead up to the national draft.
At the AFL Draft Combine last month, McKenzie was one of the genuine standouts in testing. Of 101 players tested, he finished equal first in the clean hands test with a score of 26 out of 30 while ranking equal second in the 20m sprint (2.87sec) and equal-fifth in the standing vertical jump (72cm).
The clean hands test result was one that did not surprise Kennedy, who has described McKenzie as the best contested mark he has seen in the TAC Cup in a decade. But a 13.2 result in the critical beep test was a surprise, even for McKenzie himself.
McKenzie flies for a mark against Eastern Ranges during the 2014 TAC Cup season. Picture:
McKenzie flies for a mark against Eastern Ranges during the 2014 TAC Cup season. Picture: Richard Serong. Source: News Corp Australia
“A lot of clubs have question marks over a certain aspect of your game,” McKenzie said.
“For me it’s my endurance.
“So going into the beep and the 3km I was extremely nervous but I thought, ‘You’re never going to get another chance to do the draft combine so just give it your all’.”
McKenzie had taken a similar mindset into the Northern Knights’ clash with Calder Cannons in Round 2 this year.
That day he had spotted Vic Metro’s high performance manager, Anton Grbac, in the Knights’ rooms before the game and knew it was his time to shine.
McKenzie went out and gave his all, kicking 3.2, grabbing four contested marks and showing his ability to assist in the ruck department with nine hit-outs.
It was a game that got Grbac’s attention and saw McKenzie included in Vic Metro’s under-18 side for the national championships.
As a goal-setter, making the Vic Metro squad had been at the top of McKenzie’s list.
A niggling foot injury restricted him to only one game in the championships, but just being involved was enough to put him firmly on the radar of AFL recruiters.
McKenzie sent another message to recruiters when he booted 10.2 against Eastern Ranges in Round 13 among 18 disposals, 13 marks including six contested and three goal assists.
It was a performance that saw him accumulate 256 Supercoach points — a total that has not even been achieved by the AFL’s Supercoach star, Gary Ablett.
Kennedy went along to watch McKenzie’s final game of the school football season for Marcellin College. At three-quarter time, he left. McKenzie had eight goals to his name and Marcellin led by plenty.
Kennedy missed out.
McKenzie went on to double his goal tally in the final term to finish with a school record 16.4 for the game.
Now with the football season over and Year 12 studies done and dusted, a new journey looks set to begin for McKenzie.
Like his father Warren, who played in Carlton’s 1987 premiership team, McKenzie might just receive an early Christmas present on November 27 — being selected by an AFL club.
“Before I know it, it will be the 27th of November and I think I’ll be very excited to see if I get picked up or where I go,” McKenzie said.
“It’s exciting times.”
http://www.news.com.au/national/northern-knights-power-forward-reece-mckenzie-dreaming-of-afl-career-after-chasing-college-basketball-dream/story-e6frfkp9-1227124732882
