Retired #43: Anthony "Walla" McDonald-Tipungwuti - Will play his last game this weekend - 24/8

[Lore]

Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2023
My Boy Draft 2023: Pick 5, citizen-erased

 

[Mr Bultitude]

Text from a Crom mate yesterday



You'd have to say he'd be our most popular player outside our own supporter base. I still can't get over that mid tackle goal

 

[Zach Package]

surely there are other Wallas up there we can NGA

Probably 100 of them, but how many are prepared to invest 5 years getting themselves fit and ready just to get on a list?

It was one of those funny old match ups where they both played really well. IQ did his best work being proactive an running off to intercept but Walla just torched him and everyone else when the ball hit the deck, you won't see a better crumbing game

 

[Lore]

 

[JayJ20]

Funny game - Quaynor generally had the better of him 1:1 but Tippa was able to lose him in traffic and finish with 5. His finishing was quite outrageous.

Walla kicked at least 3 on Madgen. Quaynor was very good.

 

[Pweter]

Collingwood based their jumper design on the soles of Walla's footy boots. Now that's respect!

 

[Lore]

Collingwood based their jumper design on the soles of Walla's footy boots. Now that's respect!

Maybe they were hoping it'd make them slipperier..

 

[Lore]

Speaking of boots, he walked off the ground in his socks.

 

[mike14]

His opening effort for the game was abysmal. He then exploded and was brilliant.

Would love to know if anything was said to him when he jogged to the bench after the Pies 3rd goal where he basically just stood and watched.
I thought we were in a world of hurt at that point, but he came back on and really lifted his work rate/pressure acts

 

[Old Campaigner]

He's got small hands but the ball sticks to them like glue. I've never seen any other player do the feint kick without letting go of the ball as well as he does.

 

[Old Campaigner]

And nearly broke his wrists in the process. Seems superhuman at times.

He's like a rubber ball. He throws himself around, crashes into blokes twice his size and each time I think he had to have done himself a major injury but he just bounces back up and keeps going.

 

[Lore]

He's like a rubber ball. He throws himself around, crashes into blokes twice his size and each time I think he had to have done himself a major injury but he just bounces back up and keeps going.

I used to think Scott Lucas was made of rubber... Walla reminds me of a cannonball.

 

[I Remember Bluey]

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Bombers star Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti was a gun netballer and is a likely future coach. He owes everything to his mum, Jane.


Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti can’t think of many better words than unique to describe the relationship with his mum Jane McDonald.
He could also confidently call her a coach, adviser, mentor, confidante, supporter and carer.

Their mother and son bond has grown stronger by the day after Essendon livewire Tipungwuti met McDonald in the Tiwi Islands when he was a lost teenager. Since he arrived in Victoria with her as a 16 year-old, they have virtually been inseparable.

“She’s all in one pretty much,’’ Tipungwuti says.

“Mum’s always going to be my mum and we have a strong bond. Friendship or whatever is (there) but it’s more mother and son. We have something unique, we’ve gone through so much in our lives and still do now, we’re pretty close. It’s unique but it’s different compared to other mother and sons. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Tipungwuti and McDonald live together in Gisborne now, with the family home a little less crowded while McDonald’s other children live interstate and in Dubai.

They came together in extraordinary circumstances after Tipungwuti had a childhood marked by tragedy and loneliness. His father died when he was very young and his biological mother, Nola, left him when he was just eight months old.

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and his mum Jane McDonald came together in extraordinary circumstances after Tipungwuti’s tragic childhood. Picture: Nicki Connolly

He says she drank and smoked a lot so his Gran then cared for him and when she died he was 10, leaving him isolated and directionless and being cared for by aunties and an older brother.

Then McDonald entered his life while she was in Tiwi working with the local school. After being politely asked by the shy boy hiding behind a post to take him home for Christmas, she obliged and took him back to Gippsland.

From then on the relationship flourished and there was no looking back.

“On the friendship thing people have said you need to be tough,’’ Jane says.

“Can you be tough if you’re a friend? A mum needs to be tough and needs to be a disciplinarian and that’s how I look at it from that point of view.

“It is a unique bond we have … we don’t get it, it’s just happened.”

Tipungwuti started learning at Chairo Christian School in Gippsland and he quickly fitted in with the locals.

McDonald says his sporting talent helped him gel with the other kids, playing everything from soccer to volleyball to basketball to swimming and netball.

It’s a little known fact but Tipungwuti is a premiership player after winning a netball title as an 18 year-old. The win earned the boys team legend status and McDonald, who had coached up to 17 teams back in the day, was of course his coach.

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti shows off his mercurial skills against the Pies at the MCG. Picture: Michael Klein

Tipungwuti started as a wing attack and then put in non-stop practice after school to become a goal attack. Netball soon became a passion and he even started coaching Year 5 and 6 teams until footy put a stop to his own participation.

“The game was different to AFL and mum introduced netball to us and we picked it up straight away,’’ Tipungwuti says.

“The pace of the game and using your smarts with the three sections in a way. I pretty much stopped when I got drafted because netball and basketball weren’t allowed, just with the risk of injuries and stuff like that. Otherwise I still would have played.

“It’s probably the sport I really miss, even though I still watch it regularly.

“The girls work really hard and should get recognised for that they do. I think netball should be up there with any Australian sport.

“It’s something I would definitely go and play when I retire (from) footy. It’s something I really love, if I could, I would do it now.”

Tipungwuti and McDonald have taken on a fitting role as the Melbourne Vixens No. 1 ticketholders.

The Super Netball champions start their season today 1 at John Cain Arena and their top supporters will both be cheering in the stands.

They were hopeful of getting to more games last year while Tipungwuti was in the Queensland hub and the netball competition also uprooted to the sunshine state to get through their season.

“We tried to stay up in Queensland,” McDonald says. “We hired a campervan for a week there and travelled around just to get to see their last game up on the Sunshine Coast and then we basically had to come back to Melbourne and watch it on the TV.

“I’ve got a sister that lives in Darwin so I flew there first and quarantined and then went over and back again. We were trying to piece together a bit of the year with football and then netball. It just became too hard to stay for the grand final.”

McDonald-Tipungwuti and his mum Jane are the No.1 ticketholders for the Melbourne Vixens. They’re pictured with Mwai Kumwenda and Kate Eddy. Picture: Nicki Connolly

TIPUNGWUTI says McDonald helped develop his love for the sport, and pushed him to excel in footy after he joined TAC Cup team Gippsland Power.

“Mum always told me at the start I’m not going to be your mum, I’m going to be your coach,’’ he says.

“From that point she said she’ll coach me with my training and help with my running.

“She’s always putting on a coach’s hat and mum, she didn’t want to feel like she’s pushing her son (but just) pushing an athlete. She’s been really good with helping with my training from day one I wanted to pursue AFL.

“She’s always been that person who’s really honest about what I need to work on. We go through the games to watch and do a bit of coaching on the game and she’s helped me a bit so I can go and take that back to my coaches and the players.”

As for her netball coaching, he says of mum: “Bit fiery, always walking on the sideline up and down. When we played netball we loved the fact we had a coach who can coach at the same time as walking up and down. It felt comfortable in a way that everyone trusts that mum is a coach and she’s there to help on the sideline. She’s a really tough coach and really honest, has a brilliant coaching mind and I used her to help me at the same time with my coaching. She’s really good at her role.”

Tipungwuti lights up a footy field the same way he used to dominate a netball court.

He was picked up by the Bombers in the 2015 rookie draft after playing with Essendon’s reserves side. He made his AFL debut in round 1 of the 2016 season against the Gold Coast Suns and has retained his position in the team ever since, stringing together 112 games so far.

McDonald marvels at his freakish skills and says we haven’t seen the best of him yet.

“He’s achieved it because he’s wanted it,’’ she says.

“I’ve just been on the sidelines watching really and from my point, from what he started from and even now, no one knows what he can do. He’s not been challenged by other athletes through the system. He didn’t start off when he was nine years-old, no one knows what he can do because every pre-season he just improves. I get blown out of the water by the mental toughness that he has.

“That to me is a real big thing that he has. He has a brilliant mind of being able to analyse any sport, I’m blown away by that.

“Both the netball teams he coached at school got to state finals and almost won them. We got to the grand final once and he was coaching young grade five and six boys and tactically there’s nobody better. He has that brilliant mind of being able to see things that nobody else can see.

She adds: “Between you and me he wants to actually do his netball coaching courses. We’re not just No. 1 supporters (of the Vixens) it is something that we both have loved. I’m at the end of it, I won’t go back to that and coach, but he actually has visions of what he wants to do with the netball community when he finishes football.”

McDonald-Tipungwuti was a skilled netballer and may one day become a netball coach. Picture: Nicki Connolly

THE 28-year-old still has a long career ahead in footy but he knows it’s his mum who he can credit for helping achieve his goals so far.

As they sit together watching footy shows and videos of McDonald’s daughter’s children from Dubai, and taking FaceTime calls from her sons, he says: “We are a close family. Mum was the one who pushed me through it and when I said I’m done I’ve had enough and can’t do it anymore, she’d say just give me one more. If I got my (running) time OK, she’d say give me another one.

 

[ghostdog]

Very smart play picking up that ball over the boundary line and playing on as if everything was normal.

Fooled them all.

The footage after the goal of all the Collingwood ferals going ballistic in a rage while pointing to the line was tremendous fun to see.

Maybe, but that implies he knew it was out and cheated. Benefit of the doubt is in order unless he says otherwise, I think.

Collingwood supporters going insane about it was great to see though.

 

[ghostdog]

Probably 100 of them, but how many are prepared to invest 5 years getting themselves fit and ready just to get on a list?

It was one of those funny old match ups where they both played really well. IQ did his best work being proactive an running off to intercept but Walla just torched him and everyone else when the ball hit the deck, you won't see a better crumbing game

How many of them have the support Walla did to be able to invest that time?

 

[eth-dog]

Absolute star. 8th in the Coleman. #2 small forward

 

[The Devils Advocate]

AA FP ATM IS AMT

 

[ghostdog]

Was brilliant again today. I just wish he'd had that shot from the boundary.

 

[JT_the_Man]

Can football.

 

[RedmanWasHere]

Only negative is his trips.

He needs new boots.

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

NEW BOOTS PLEASE!!!

 

[andleanback]

Willl be getting an AA blazer at the end of the year if he keeps up this form. Greene out for 4 weeks aswell.

 

[Old Campaigner]

Willl be getting an AA blazer at the end of the year if he keeps up this form. Greene out for 4 weeks aswell.

Nah, they’ll just stick some Richmond midfielder in the AA forward pocket

 

[VexOh]

Cleanest finisher and user in THE game. No one better.

 

[Goat Hird]

Everytime he finds the ball around <30ish out n can turn on his preferred, you know he's splitting the middle

 

[Schnitzengruben]

When Walla is in beast mode, you'd better get out the ******* way. Absolute wrecking ball. Love the campaigner.