Sir Ronald Mac
Team Captain
- Mar 25, 2023
- 312
- 415
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Banned
- #1,801
Priority Pick 1 - Luke McDonald
Pictured: "... and I'm sure I have the whole team behind me"
Likes: Payweek
Hates: Weekends
Luke McDonald is a top 10 pick AFL captain senior player who still needs to wear his ID badge to visit AFL HQ. If I picked a different North player in the photo above would you notice? If you are in some sort of witness protection program you'd pick Tarryn Thomas out. Maybe. But that's probably it.
A father-son pick, Luke started his AFL journey in 2014 and has been the same player as he was in game 1 for his entire career. Notable career events include earning 2 brownlow votes in the 2020 and in the 2022 season, and once winning a free small coke via the McDonalds monopoly promotion. The end.
In 2023, having being appointed co-captain duties with something called a Jy Simpkin, he was subbed on once and subbed off twice in his 22 games because 'leadership'. Speaking of leadership, he was the Bottom 50 no 1 pick months out. The date was 30 July and North were playing West Coast Eagles for the 'Harley Reid Spoon'. History will show that the North lost that game and still didn't win the spoon, which is an effort so loserish that all of North's law-abiding Premiership caprtains got together and - psych! They have not produced a law-abiding VFL/AFL captain since entering the competition in 1925.
The stats sheet will show that Luke managed a whopping 5 disposals that day, and somehow his performance was worse than his stats suggest. All of those 5 disposals were gained in the first half - so North, playing the bottom side, had their captain run around and not touch the ball for an hour of footy when they could have feasibly salvaged a modicum of pride late in the season. There are tanker captains wedging ships into the side of the Suez canal who watch Luke play football just to feel better about themselves. It was, quite simply, the worst on-field display of an AFL captain in living memory.
McDonald will turn 29 shortly and is contracted until the end of 2026 because North's list manager is, well, 'an honest trier'. I'm not calling whoever fills the role 'stupid', I'm just saying they are desperately unlucky any time they try to think. I think he failed his birth certificate.
Most North fans seem to think that McDonald isn't in their best 22 and are mystified as to why he kept getting selected. In captain terms he's kind of like Richie Vandenberg but without being weighed down by all that 'leadership' and 'respect'.
Fun fact: Luke McDonald was awarded life membership at North Melbourne at their B&F presentation in September, shortly after he was given a take-home meal of mushroom stew freshly made by a fan from Gippsland.
Luke, good luck near year playing 'your role' and thank you for rounding out the Bottom 50 for 2023.
