He’s been backed by the AFL club captains to take the prize for the best young player in the league and Joel Selwood thinks by the end of the year, you’ll be rooting for Nakia Cockatoo too.

That is, if you don’t already love the new wearer of Geelong’s No.5 guernsey.

“Even if you’re not a Geelong fan, I think you’ll quickly because a lover of Nakia Cockatoo,” the Geelong captain said on Wednesday.

Selwood has been around long enough to play with some of the greatest talents in the game.

But the Cats skipper can’t find a comparison for Cockatoo, drafted by Geelong last year and unleashed on the league in the NAB Challenge.

“He’s a loveable kid that does some outstanding things with the football and just loves the game,” he said.

“He brings something new each week and that’s the exciting part about it.

“He could do anything this year and I think we should just let him go, play on his natural ability.

“He’ll learn to play with the team and around the team but we’ve got to learn how to play with him first too.”

If there is a comparison for Cockatoo at Geelong, it may well be Selwood himself.

The All Australian captain was the last player the Cats have drafted inside the top 10 of the national draft, at pick seven in 2006.

Cockatoo was taken at No.10 last year and has lit up their pre-season.

The 18-year-old has shown electric pace around the contest and a strong appetite to tackle – leading more AFL captains to pick him for the Rising Star award than any other young player.

Cockatoo’s emergence and Mitch Clark’s resurgence has made Geelong the big winners from the NAB Challenge.

Clark kicked 11.2 from three pre-season starts and will form an exciting double act in the Cats forward line with Tom Hawkins, beginning with their Easter Monday round one clash with Hawthorn.

Selwood backed the former Demon to continue kicking goals in the season proper, but said the Cats forward line was more than just two players.

“What we’re going to put around (Hawkins and Clark), it’s quite exciting,” he said.

“(Steven) Motlop, (Steve) Johnson, Cockatoo, Darcy Lang we’ve seen down there too.

“Cory Gregson’s another one.”

Selwood said fellow big men Nathan Vardy and Rhys Stanley would also push Clark and Hawkins for selection.

“It’ll take a while to gel and get it right but when we do I think it will be really exciting,” he said.