{"id":58808,"date":"2019-10-01T17:40:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T07:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=58808"},"modified":"2020-04-23T06:24:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T20:24:35","slug":"dual-all-australian-mckinnon-determined-to-reach-the-elite-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2019\/10\/01\/dual-all-australian-mckinnon-determined-to-reach-the-elite-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual All-Australian McKinnon determined to reach the elite level"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUTH Australia-born Montana McKinnon<\/strong> has plenty to be happy about in her sporting career so far, only 18-years-old but playing in representative teams from a young age. Like many other young Aussies, McKinnon started her footy journey as a five-year-old in Auskick before making the switch to netball at a young age. <\/p>\n

\u201cI started when I was five, just did AusKick for a bit of fun but obviously didn\u2019t think anything of it,” McKinnon said. “I had a really big netball background, played at a high level – played for 11 years. Then when I hit the age of 14 I found out about football, girls teams and stuff and I wanted to come out and try.\u201d<\/p>\n

While McKinnon pulled on the footy boots once more as a 14-year-old, it was only as a 15\/16-year-old that she made the full time switch to footy when games started to clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like obviously you need your different skills and stuff but I feel like netball did help, definitely in some ways,” McKinnon said. “I was a defender in netball, ever since I was about 10 so I feel like it did help my defence. \u201cI like the contact as well, netball you\u2019re not allowed to be rough or anything and I love the physicality of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite little footy experience up her sleeve, McKinnon had talent and flair to boot and was granted permission to play in the South Australian Academy from a young age.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard about the state academy, and I knew because I was only 14 I was too young to play in the Under 18s team so I just went out to the academy sessions, thought I\u2019d give it a crack just for a bit of extra training before I went out towards the club level,\u201d McKinnon said. \u201cThen they actually wanted me to come, they got an AFL permit for me to come out so at 14 I played in the state academy for the first time and then I\u2019ve been playing there ever since, they\u2019ve kept me in the team for the past four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

While McKinnon has plenty of experience now, playing in the academy at only 14 was a daunting task, especially with the inaugural AFL Women\u2019s season looming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely very scary especially considering that was my very first ever game of football, going away to Melbourne playing against NSW,\u201d said McKinnon. \u201cEspecially a few months after hearing the names called out at the draft, there\u2019s been some big names that played in that team who are now off all over Australia playing for all different clubs in all different states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Named Most Valuable Player for the Central Allies in the 2019 AFL Women\u2019s Under 18 Championship, McKinnon puts her work ethic down to constantly wanting to one-up her own form and create opportunities for her teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really special to represent the Central Allies, considering especially how big football has now become. Obviously a few or more years ago it wasn\u2019t as noticed as it is now but yeah it\u2019s really special,\u201d McKinnon said. \u201cMy ultimate goal is to get drafted after this, hopefully even if it\u2019s next year, in five years time, just definitely work on it for a few years and see where it takes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinnon has been touted as the standout ruck prospect in the 2019 AFL Women\u2019s Draft, with her ability to not only impact the ball in and around the contest but also find opportunity to clear the ball out of stoppages and set up key plays for her side. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think my marking and my aerial contest would be my biggest strength,\u201d McKinnon said. <\/p>\n

As for improvements, she said ground ball gets are the ones to work on. <\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely my ground balls, because I\u2019m a tall player and it\u2019s a struggle to get down,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it\u2019s family both on and off field that makes McKinnon tick with her biggest inspiration coming down to her parents and teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably my parents, they\u2019ve always been there supporting me and have helped me out along the way \u2026 all the teams and all the girls it\u2019s such a great bunch. Each team is different and it\u2019s like they become your family, it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOUTH Australia-born Montana McKinnon has plenty to be happy about in her sporting career so far, only 18-years-old but playing in representative teams from a young age. Like many other young Aussies, McKinnon started her footy journey as a five-year-old in Auskick before making the switch to netball at a young age. \u201cI started when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":53653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5603,278,11603,3130,137],"tags":[4980,9938,9939,9937,9936,1714,11631],"class_list":["post-58808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aflw-national-championships","category-feature-articles","category-south-adelaide","category-south-australia","category-womens","tag-montana-mckinnon","tag-montana-mckinnon-aflw-features","tag-montana-mckinnon-aflw-u18-championships","tag-montana-mckinnon-central-allies","tag-montana-mckinnon-south-australia","tag-south-adelaide","tag-south-australia-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}