• Draft order: Your club's provisional picks

NORTHERN Knights captain Jade Gresham was the standout of the first night of testing at this year's NAB AFL Draft Combine, leading the way as the prospects' skills were put under the microscope.

The small and powerful midfielder, who finished second in this year's Morrish Medal in the TAC Cup, was one of four players to kick a perfect score in the goalkicking test, converting all five of his shots.

Nick O'Kearney, Oleg Markov and Clayton Oliver also kicked perfect scores in the goalkicking test, which sees the draft hopefuls kick set shots, snaps on both feet and running attempts at goal.

Gresham was also among the best performers in the clean hands test and the kicking test, which also took place on Friday night at Etihad Stadium.

Key defender Kieran Collins showed his smarts with the ball, scoring 29 points out of a possible 30 in the handballing test, where players are made to pinpoint handballs to targets at different distances with both hands.

Possible Western Bulldogs father-son pick Darcy MacPherson and neat left-footed defender Tyrone Leonardis were equal second on 28, while another nine players managed to score more than 25 out of 30.

Tasmanian midfielder Mitchell Hibberd continued to boost his draft stocks by winning the kicking test, scoring 24 points out of a possible 30.

The test forces players to kick to targets at short, medium and long distance on both sides of their body, showing their ability to be efficient with the body on their preferred and non-preferred feet.

Hibberd performed well last week in the Allies' Grand Final curtain-raiser game at the MCG and has enjoyed a strong season after overcoming injuries in recent years.

Having missed out on last year's draft, overager Nick Coughlan started his second national combine by finishing second in the kicking test.

MacPherson was again prominent in this test as one of three players to claim 22 points, while talls Ben McKay, Matthew Allen and Charlie Curnow also tested well.

Bulldogs recruiting manager Simon Dalrymple said the club was still weighing up whether to nominate MacPherson ahead of next month's draft.

"The nominations don't close until the end of October. We'll assess Darcy like any other player in the pool. We've obviously seen him play and had a fair bit to do with him," Dalrymple said. 

"But there's still a fair bit of work to be done in assessing him comparable to others."

This year's restructured combine format will see a bulk of the testing completed over the weekend, with agility, sprint and the beep test taking place on Saturday.

LEADING PERFORMERS – COMBINE DAY TWO 

Clean hands test
Kieran Collins             29 (out of a possible 30)
Darcy MacPherson      28
Tyrone Leonardis        28
Daniel Rioli                 27
Rhys Mathieson          27
Mitch King                  27
Jade Gresham            26
Bailey Rice                 26
Darcy Tucker              26
Declan Mountford        26
Kurt Mutimer               26
Jordan Snadden          26

Goalkicking test
Jade Gresham             30 (out of a possible 30)
Nick O'Kearney           30
Oleg Markov               30
Clayton Oliver             30
Kieran Lovell               25
Tyrone Leonardis        25
Matthew Kennedy       25
Mitchell Hibberd          25
Liam Jeffs                   25
Eric Hipwood               25
Matthew Allen             25
Nick Coughlan             25
Mitch King                  25 

Kicking test
Mitchell Hibberd          24 (out of a possible 30)
Nick Coughlan             23
Darcy MacPherson       22
Thomas Glen               22
Matthew Allen             22
Jade Gresham             21
Nick O'Kearney           21
Rhys Mathieson           21
Declan Mountford        21
Jordan Snadden          21
Ben McKay                 21
Charlie Curnow           21