The 20-year-old midfielder has only just returned to the field after a nagging groin injury delayed the start of his 2011 season.
He says he returned to a different game to the one he starred in last year.
"I reckon it has changed a little bit. Probably it has been well-documented that there is more emphasis on the forward press, keeping the ball in your forward half of the ground," McKenzie told melbournefc.com.au.
"All teams aim to do that but now everyone has honed in even more. That's probably been the biggest change in that short period of time."
The emphasis in defensive pressure sits well with McKenzie who led the Demons in tackling last year with 126.
He says tackling is one of his genuine strengths as a footballer, along with winning the hard ball - a category in which he also led the Demons last year with 83.
And he is looking to further develop his bustling work in heavy traffic as he works closely with midfield coach Scott West.
"All the midfield group works pretty closely with Westy and he is a wealth of knowledge," McKenzie said.
"We all try to get as much out him as we can. He's been great in developing my game and I am looking forward to continuing to work with him for years to come."
McKenzie impressed everyone at Melbourne in his first full season last year. He played 19 games and finished 11th in the club best and fairest, taking out the coaches award.
Though he was widely regarded as one of the AFL's best young players of 2010, he somehow missed out on a nomination for the NAB AFL Rising Star. Not that it seems to bother him.
"To be honest I didn't give it any thought at all. I was just happy to be getting a game with Melbourne and try to put my best foot forward for the boys there," he said.
"That individual stuff doesn't mean anywhere near as much as the club stuff."
Just as he looked set to follow on with his good form this season, McKenzie was struck down with a groin injury that didn't allow him to play senior football until last week's loss to St Kilda.
Not surprisingly, an extended period as a spectator didn't sit well with the energetic and enthusiastic McKenzie.
"You value it more when you have that time on the sidelines. It was a very testing time. Hopefully now those injury days are behind me," he said.
Football club medical teams are reluctant to publicly diagnose a player with osteitis pubis but McKenzie says that is exactly what he was facing.
"It was certainly early stages. Without being fully blown osteitis pubis it was still hampering me and hard to get rid of. It did hang around a lot longer than we were hoping," he said.
"There were blokes at the club like Brent Moloney and Jared Rivers who have had injuries a lot worse than mine. They've come through the other end so it was good to learn from them."
Luke Holmesby covers Melbourne news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_LHolmesby
