IT'S THE age-old cliche, but the Coleman Medallist is embracing it.

Heading into his seventh year at IKON Park, Harry McKay admits that it has all happened very quickly, from being a first-round draft selection back in 2015 to now entering a season as the All-Australian full-forward.

However, he is enjoying every minute. 

“It does go quickly: it feels like just yesterday that I walked in the door as a naive, 17-year-old kid,” McKay said. 

“A lot of guys that come out of the system say ‘enjoy it, it goes pretty quickly’ but I am enjoying my time, so that’s important to me.” 

A lot of change has been rolling through Carlton, but one thing that hasn’t changed for McKay is his role or attitude to the way he plays. 

When speaking on SEN's The Run Home with Andy Maher and Andrew Gaze, McKay was asked about how he measures his game.

More than just goals and marks, McKay said he always brought a focus to being a predictable teammate and halving contests in attack. With Michael Voss preaching a team-first attitude all summer, it's an aspect of the role which McKay enjoys executing.

"Coming into the role and being a key forward, there’s no doubt there’s external pressure and they at times measure your game on kicks, marks, handballs and goals,” he said. 

“There’s probably a change in the environment, especially with 'Vossy': we speak about how you can be a good teammate and the values that come under that.

“You can’t control how many goals you kick or how many marks you take but you can control what kind of teammate you are and what you’re doing without the ball to help the team and kind of all the actions within that.” 

With his old mate Charlie Curnow hopefully stationed alongside him this year and a bevy of small options, McKay wants to once again embrace being the focal point in attack.

“Within my role, the number one thing I look at as key forward is my ability to halve contests, so bringing the ball to ground or marking, being predictable for my smalls and the team. That's something I really like to pride myself on,” he said. 

“The other stuff is nice, kicking goals and taking contested marks, but if I can hang my hat on not being out-marked, then that’s what I can do.” 

Having built up his role as a key forward over the last few years, McKay admitted that holistically, his role hasn’t changed a whole lot under new leadership or game plans. 

“I think role-wise, it doesn’t change too much,” he said. 

“Over the last couple of years I’ve built up my role and what that looks like but it’s probably more as a team and what we want to do and our focus as a team. 

“Individual roles come into that but it’s more how we want to look and play as a team and the roles around.” 

There can’t be a conversation about McKay’s goalkicking without questions about his decision to snap goals around his body, despite the positive record he boasts.

Always answering the question with a smile, McKay said while it may not be the conventional thing to do, the statistics speak for themselves: the forward had 75.9 per cent success rate using his snap on goal from set shots last year.

“If you strip it back and look at the numbers, I actually kicked very well around the corner last year, so I’ll definitely continue to keep doing that,” he said. 

“It doesn’t mean I haven’t done a lot of work on my drop punt as well, but I think it doesn’t look great, but if you look at the stats, it’s very effective. 

“I’ve worked pretty hard over the summer and hopefully it shows.”