NAKIA Cockatoo's journey to the AFL ended this week with a taxi fare about seven times higher than any of his peers faced when they arrived in Queensland for the NAB AFL Draft.

The new Geelong midfielder was only invited to Thursday night's draft two weeks ago, which made booking direct flights from his hometown of Darwin to the Gold Coast tricky.

So the 18-year-old and his mother Natasha, step-father Peter and one-month-old brother Michael flew into Brisbane on Wednesday instead, and then caught a cab the rest of the way.

It cost $308 – a far cry from what the other potential draftees who were invited had to pay when they travelled from Coolangatta Airport to Broadbeach, where the draft was held.

However it was worth the extra travel - and the taxi bill was taken care of - when he was snapped up by the Cats with pick No.10 overall.

It was a surprise to Cockatoo, who thought may have been headed to West Coast with the next pick.

He only spoke to the Cats once this year – in London, during the AIS-AFL Academy tour of Europe in April – and even that was only during the "speed dating" process the players had with the club recruiters.

Then there was the complication of the surgery on the fifth metatarsal on his right foot he faced when he got home, after the injury flared a second time in February during pre-season in his native Northern Territory.

"I was all clear to play in two scratch match games against the Remote All Stars, and that's when I did it again," Cockatoo told AFL.com.au.

"It was the same thing, the same spot. I was just shattered.

"This time I had surgery straight away after the Europe trip with the AIS [Academy], I had it on April the 22nd and ever since then it's been awesome."

Cockatoo first had a problem with the foot during the 2013 NAB AFL Under 18 Championships.

It felt good the week before after some initial soreness but flared up in the first match.

"I pretty much played through the nationals with a broken foot – afterwards I found out I had a stress fracture," he said.

"They got me in a boot for eight weeks because we didn't want to get surgery just yet, we wanted to let it heal by itself and slowly build up to training."

After this year's procedure he played just one game – for an all-star team as the curtain raiser on Grand Final day – but Cockatoo's foot is now fine.  

He's already been welcomed to Geelong via a text from captain Joel Selwood, who was the most recent Cats to be drafted inside the top 10, in 2006.

And he's looking forward to swapping the hot climate of Darwin for the chilly winters of the Victorian surf coast in the coming weeks, if it means he gets his chance to play at the highest level.

"I've been saying it all day and yesterday but I really just can't wait to get down and meet all the boys," he said.

"It still feels like I'm dreaming. I'm just so stoked to be able to go to Geelong.

"But the boys have been saying I better bring some pretty warm clothes."