The 19-year-old is very quickly becoming an important part of a lethal Southern United attacking unit. He has already scored two goals in seven matches in his first season of national league football.
In his last home outing he regularly tore through the Hawke’s Bay United defence with the ball at his feet.
As he prepares to face the table-topping Auckland City at Logan Park Turf today, he will be hoping that continues.
"I feel like I’m getting used to the pace of the game," he said.
"Tactically it’s a lot higher than I’ve played at before.
"There’s a lot more structure in terms of how we’re going to break down the opposition and how we’re going to defend and stuff.
"I guess it’s just learning that.
"It’s obviously taken a bit of time and it’s still going to take time."
A late addition to the side, Mackenzie earned a trial in a pre-season game through a contact. He impressed and the decision to leave behind his electrical pre-trade course in Wellington had been an easy one.
The opportunity to play in the national premiership had been key in that.
He had spent time at the Ole Academy and played for the Team Wellington youth team in 2017. However, this was his first season at this level.
The set-up had impressed him so far, calling it as close to professional as it could be without actually being professional.
There was plenty of quality around him too.
In particular he was enjoying playing in a line-up including fellow attackers Joel Stevens, Garbhan Coughlan and Abdulla Al-Kalisy.
"It makes it a lot more fun - we can just be creative.
"Paul’s given us that attacking freedom," he said, referring to coach Paul O’Reilly.
"As long as we get back into a defensive shape, he says go and express yourself. It makes it enjoyable."
A return home last week yielded a tough result - Southern being thrashed 6-1 by Team Wellington.
Mackenzie said the team knew its performance had not been good enough.
However, he felt the response in training had been great.
While it does not get any easier against Auckland City today, it was a chance to make things right.
"Another tough game.
"But these are the games you want to play.
"I came here to play national league, to play against the best players.
"What better opportunity than to play against Auckland City [in the] last home game before Christmas?
"It doesn’t get any better than that, especially off the back of last week. It’s a huge opportunity for us."
Kickoff is at 4pm.
Following this weekend, the league takes a two week break, returning on January 11.
