BY BRETT KEEBLE
01 Feb, 2012 04:00 AM
HE will always be grateful to the Dragons for giving him his first shot at the NRL.
But as a kid from the heart of the Hunter Valley, Alex McKinnon feels at home at the Knights.
The 19-year-old Aberdeen Tigers junior spent five years at St George Illawarra but jumped at the chance to follow former flatmate Darius Boyd and coach Wayne Bennett to Newcastle.
McKinnon, who is in the first year of a three-year contract with the Knights, will make his debut in the red and blue in a lower-grade trial against the Newcastle Rugby League representative squad at Tomaree on Friday night.
The Junior Kangaroos representative will start in the second row in a pack including his housemate, Korbin Sims, and hopes to play well enough to be included in the NRL squad for trials against Penrith and Cronulla this month.
The Knights play the Panthers at Port Macquarie on February 11 then the Sharks at Muswellbrook, a 15-minute drive down the New England Highway from his home town, on February 18.
Most of McKinnon’s family still live in Aberdeen or Scone, so in his spare time he catches up with them and his many childhood friends who have moved to Newcastle to work.
‘‘I’m a lot happier boy now that I’m back in Newcastle,’’ said McKinnon, who played three NRL games for the Dragons last year, including a 14-10 loss to the Knights in Wollongong in July.
‘‘All my family are around, and all my mates from when I was younger all live around Newcastle ... so I can get away from football a bit more, and life outside of football is a lot better.’’
Knowing that Bennett and high-performance manager Jeremy Hickmans would implement the same conditioning and training programs he was accustomed to at the Dragons was one of the factors behind his decision to join them at the Knights.
‘‘Training has been pretty tough, but it’s been good,’’ he said. ‘‘I knew what to expect, what we had to do, and that’s what Jeremy spoke to me about before we came up, that most of what we’d do at training would be the same.’’
McKinnon has added about six kilograms of muscle to his 190-centimetre frame, and though his first taste of the NRL was as a centre, he is bulking up in preparation for a career in the back row.
‘‘I’m about 103, 104 kilos now. That’s one of the main things Jeremy wanted me to do, was to put on some weight,’’ he said.
‘‘It seriously doesn’t worry me but I usually played in the back row when I was younger, then mostly lock last year, and in the centres in first grade.
‘‘But I’ve been training mostly in the second row.’’
McKinnon plans to make the most of his time in the middle on Friday night and do likewise in upcoming trials, but he is under no illusion about how tough it will be to crack a regular spot in the NRL squad this year.
‘‘I’m still only 19, so getting a run this week, I see that as a good thing,’’ he said.
‘‘With trials, you’ve just got to play well and put your best foot forward so then it’s up to the coaching staff to make a decision, and you’re not closing the door on yourself.
‘‘I know a lot of people at the Knights haven’t really seen me play much, and I don’t know how long I’ll be playing, whether it’s 20 or 30 minutes, so however long it is, I’ll put my best foot forward. There’s 35 of us training at the moment and everyone in the squad wants to play first grade.
‘‘I just want to play good in the trials and if I play good footy, and they need someone like me in the team or think that I’ll suit the team, then hopefully I’ll get a run ... ‘‘One thing I’ve said to myself is I’ve got to stay focused ... I’ve got a goal to play first grade in the future, but if that comes now, then I’ll be real happy with that.’’
