Montana McKinnon is set to be the Crows’ first pick at Tuesday’s AFLW draft. So, who is this gun teenager?
South Adelaide’s ruck Montana McKinnon has been impressing football selectors for years, but she’s always been too young. Finally, on Tuesday, she’ll get her AFLW chance.
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It was the football beginning that almost never was: Montana McKinnon’s journey into top level footy is one underlined by hard work and a philosophy of turning up; no matter what.
As a 14-year-old and having never played football before, the talented netballer decided to tag along one evening with a friend who was trying out for the South Australian state football team.
“I’d heard about girls’ football … I knew I was too young to make the state team, but I thought I’d go out for a bit of experience before I played for a club, because I knew they did all the testing,” the now 18-year-old says.
She was so impressive that night the state selectors applied to the AFL for special dispensation for her to play for SA.
“But the AFL declined it because I was only 14 years old and it was under-18s national championships,” she says.
Despite being knocked back, selectors told McKinnon to keep coming to trainings because she had enormous talent. So she did. And even though she had no chance of making the state team, she turned up to every single training session.
Then the unexpected happened. A week before national championships she was playing netball in Malaysia when she got the call: a few injuries had occurred and the AFL had given her permission to play.
“They said it was because I’d been the only player who carried on and had been to every training session,” she said.
That game she played in state colours — against New South Wales — was her first ever game of football. She recalls she got three touches.
Four years on and the now 18-year-old ruck is preparing to be drafted into the AFLW on Tuesday and is widely tipped to be the first player the Crows will pick up.
As Adelaide begins planning its 2020 premiership defence, the club’s first draft pick is at No. 14.
McKinnon’s rather tall. Today she stands 182cm, but even when she played her first game aged 14, she was put in ruck (second to former Crows and now GWS’s Jess Allan, sister of Crows premiership player Sarah).
And that’s where she’s stayed, enjoying the evolution of the position that is seeing the second efforts of rucks becoming just as important as tap work, a la the likes of Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy and Melbourne’s Max Gawn.
“A big one that I’ve been working on is getting to the right spots on the ground and getting a kick down the line,” she says.
“I feel like I play more of a defensive ruck and I do like to take intercepts down there and I’ve definitely been working on getting around the ground and especially trying to get more involved at ground level.
“Being a tall, you’re not so expected to get the groundballs, but I’ve been really trying to work on that.”
That’s probably why scout notes on McKinnon say that she’s the top ruck prospect in Tuesday’s AFLW draft.
Not to mention she’s also a two-time under-18 All-Australian, a two-time SANFLW South Adelaide premiership player and was not only the captain for the Central Allies (a composite SA/NT team) at this year’s under-18 national carnival, but also its MVP.
She agrees there’s a little bit of pressure that comes with all of that.
“I try not to think too much into it … it’s exciting though,” she says.
“If I got drafted, it would be an absolute dream and it would be good to become a role model for the younger generation.”
McKinnon, who is studying her Certificate IV in Fitness to become a personal training, attended the AFLW Draft Combine earlier this month and has been a member of the AFLW Academy since 2018.
On the field, she’s become known for her contested marks, but off-field her South Adelaide team-mate Hannah Munyard says she’s known for being “quite a funny character”.
“I’ve played with Montana for two years in the state program and I love playing with her,” Munyard says.
“What I love about Montana is that she’s so brave and brings the whole morale of the team up and she’s funny as well and is really good at building friendships and bringing people together.”
The Crows have eight picks in the draft: 14, 37, 46, 53, 68, 83, 100, 102.
* The AFLW Draft is on Tuesday. Follow the action from 10am in our live blog.