Roo ace to thrill at home

Draft pick enjoys AFL life

While he admits it has been a step up from living the life of a highly touted draft prospect to the full-time job as an AFL footballer, North Melbourne’s Colby McKercher says he is loving every minute of it.

The Launceston-born teenager is six games into what is shaping as a long and successful career after being selected with pick two in last’s year national draft.

And while McKercher (pictured) may have to wait until later this year to play in his hometown, the 19-yearold is set for his first game in Tasmania when North hosts Adelaide at Blundstone Arena on Saturday.

With a strong contingent of family and friends to make the trip south, he said it was exciting to return to familiar surroundings in search of his first win in the white and blue stripes.

“Yeah, I’m really excited to head back,” he said.

“I’ve got some friends and family coming down and then I’m staying back in Launceston for a few days after to catch up with them and spend some time at home before heading back to Melbourne on Monday.”

While the Roos may be the competition’s only winless team heading into round 7, McKercher’s form has remained strong.

Averaging 15.7 disposals, 9.7 kicks and 1.7 tackles, the former Tasmania Devils best and fairest winner has shown glimpses of his talent on the field but it is the lessons he is learning off it that have surprised him the most.

“It’s long days with hard training sessions and now we are in the season each week goes by really fast, we finish one and it’s on to the next, so it’s a bit of a cycle but one that I’ve really enjoyed so far,” McKercher said.

“Probably the biggest lesson is the change of attitude and mindset. In under-18s football it is probably a more relaxed approached and some aren’t as serious as what the AFL guys are, so it’s just how attentive and switched on to detail you have to be and those other guys keep you accountable. “Back in under-18s there is probably really only 5-10 blokes who are trying to make a career out of it . . . so when it’s your full-time job and you have all these professional guys keeping you accountable it only makes you get better, so you have to be switched on and prepared to work hard.”

It has been tough for North and while McKercher said it was confident going in against a 1-5 Adelaide, he stressed that the focus was on chipping away at internal benchmarks.

“Yeah we are definitely not satisfied with our last few performances,” he said.

“We have a few growth areas we need to work on, so we will keep ticking away at them.”

First-bounce on Saturday at 1.45pm. is