Melbourne’s Tom McDonald has given coach Simon Goodwin the best kind of headache with a starring four-goal performance in the big win over West Coast.
McDonald was called up to replace injured forward Ben Brown one week after getting dropped to the VFL.
But on the back of his strong showing against the Eagles, Goodwin says Brown is no guarantee to slot straight back in.
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“It’s competitive (for best 22 spots),” Goodwin said.
“We take a squad mentality with some of this stuff as well.
“We’ve got really competitive spots in our team and one of those is our key forward position.
“We’ll have to have a good think about how that looks for next week.”
West Coast Eagles Press Conference | 08:28
Fox Footy’s Leigh Montagna said he believed the Dees were “still working out what their best forward mix looks like” in 2023 – despite sitting as the high-scoring team after four rounds.
Speaking on First Crack David King praised McDonald’s versatility, which could keep him in the best side moving forward.
“I just felt Tom McDonald needed a game today because there is such competition for that tall forward position,” he said.
“Brown obviously has the back ailment at the moment. (Jacob) van Rooyen is playing some pretty good footy and they want to give him opportunities.
“For Tom McDonald to kick four goals, take marks inside forward 50 and just show that he’s a difficult match up. Because he can get on his bike and become a pseudo centre half forward slash wingman he goes that far up the ground.
“They took 16 marks inside 50 (against West Coast) – that’s a big number for Melbourne. They haven’t been known to pluck big numbers inside 50, part without Max Gawn down there.
“This is working on all fronts.”
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Goodwin said he was “rapt” to see McDonald come back into the team and shine.
“He wasn’t in the best of form in the first couple of weeks. We sent him back the VFL where he actually played a really dominant game at VFL level,” he revealed.
“And he’s come in and done the same thing for us (against West Coast).
“I think that says a lot about Tom and a lot about our culture that we’ve got a group of hungry individuals that are prepared to go back and work on their game and then come in and play some really strong AFL football.
“I was pumped for Tommy Mac.
“It was just getting back into form (sending him to the VFL).
“He wasn’t as strong aerially as we would have liked. Physically probably wasn’t covering the ground as we would have liked (in rounds one and two).
“You saw today, he was pretty dominant in the air when he got his chances.
“It’s a competitive team to be involved in and Tommy’s gone back and proven why he wants to be an AFL player.”
