Northern Knights forward Liam McMahon might not have stepped onto the football field this season, but it didn’t stop him from working hard on his AFL dream.
While it took a little while to comprehend that he wouldn’t get to play football this year due to COVID-19, McMahon was keen to show recruiters why they should pick him.
“When we got the first lockdown notice in March, I was really motivated and I thought to myself that people will take their foot off the gas and I’ll just do the extra step to be one better than everyone else,” he said.
“It was tough to initially comprehend it, it probably didn’t set in soak in for a week, that I wasn’t going to play a game this year, it was a bit difficult, but it’s always better to look at it on the outside.
“I was running three to four times a week, putting on weight and doing extra sessions in the gym.
“My year without football has been good physically, but yeah, definitely missed the game.”
One of the queries about McMahon heading into the final year of junior football was his size. With that in mind he worked hard in the gym the past eight months.
“I’ve grown an extra two centimetres and I’ve put on an extra seven kilos,” he said.
“I was 78 kilos at the start of these pre-season… now I’m 85.5 kilos.
“It just shows all the hard work in the gym and eating mum and dad out of house and home has worked.”
The hard work was also on show at the recent AFL draft combine. McMahon got personal bests in all three of the events.
For him, the first achievement was being able to test in the first place.
“Leading up to the combine I was putting in the extra steps, waking up in the early mornings and going down to the oval and running with some of my mates just getting right,” he said.
“We didn’t know when the actual combine was going to be, the unknown was a bit hard, when to fully prepare your body.
“I was just grateful to be part of it. I performed really well and did personal bests in all three of the tests.
“It shows all the hard work I did paid off.”
McMahon, who tries to model his game on Jack Gunston, is hoping his work this year and his performances from last year have paid off and will sees him drafted on December 7.
He said he had spoken to about 12 AFL clubs in the lead up to the draft.
“I feel like I played some really good football last year,“ he said. “There were some weeks in the middle of the season, I would have liked to perform better and, then in some games that I played well which really shows why I can be put onto an AFL list.
“Ever since I knew what footy was, I had this vision of playing at an AFL level.
“I don’t see myself doing anything else. I’ve loved it since a kid and mum and dad have been driving me towards it.”
The Richmond supporter has been trying to take his mind off the draft with his year 12 exams.
He said it will be a stressful few weeks,but he was looking forward to what might come.
“It should be a good experience and I’m grateful to be a part of it.”
