Three games back after a year out of the game, Macdonald has wasted little time in finding the form he displayed before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament against Hawthorn in round seven, 2006.
As the 22-year-old explained to lions.com.au, he made a conscious decision to ignore the train of thought that says players must ‘feel’ their way back from serious injuries.
“When you are coming back from the knee it’s all about the positives – and I didn’t want anything negative like that running through my head,” Macdonald said.
I had a lot of blokes tell me that you take 12 months or so to get back to where you were. But, to be honest, I don’t reckon it’s true.
“I used it as motivation. I said to myself, ‘Why do you have to wait 12 months to start playing your best footy again’, and I planned around making sure it wasn’t like that.
“I knew I wasn’t going to get a full pre-season in, so I’ve made sure I’ve worked on my fitness as much as possible and put in extra sessions.
“In terms of making sure my reading of the play was there, I made sure I watched as much footy as I could and really studied the guys who player similar positions to me.
“And I also knew my touch work wasn’t going to be as naturally sharp as normal, having not played for 12 months – so I worked really hard on that.”
Macdonald was among the Lions’ best in Saturday night’s heart-breaking seven-point loss to Port Adelaide at the Gabba.
Used mainly on a wing, he had 21 possessions, ran hard for 15 handball receives and was solid around the contest with a team-high six hard-ball gets.
“I’m pretty happy at the moment playing on the wing,” he said.
“I’m enjoying being able to support the other guys that play around the middle of the ground at the stoppages and use my run.
“At the same time, it was pretty good to slot back into defence in my first game back, because I’ve played a fair bit of my footy there.”
Having not joined in the club song since last May, Macdonald is understandably eager to celebrate a victory.
The Lions haven’t won since round six, but the Mt Gravatt product believes the Port game – which included a stirring and nearly successful last-quarter comeback – points to the fact that another victory isn’t too far around the corner.
“I thought we were really improved from how we played against Geelong,” he said.
“We were pretty stagnant in that game and against Port we moved the ball much quicker, started to play the way we want to play and kicked goals as a result.
“It’s about taking some risk, taking off when you have the ball in your hand and calling the forwards into leading out towards you into space.
“Sometimes it’s hard to take those risks. But we haven’t won a game for six weeks and we’ve got absolutely nothing to lose.
“Leigh [Matthews] isn’t going to be shouting at us for making a mistake when we’re having a crack.”
