McDonald, who plays his 200th AFL match against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG on Saturday, said Melbourne was still adjusting to new coach Dean Bailey's coaching style, hinting it could take some time to get used to his new philosophies.
"We've been working on this since October last year and we've got to be a little bit of a realist,” McDonald said from the MCG on Tuesday.
“You look at Hawthorn four years ago when Alastair Clarkson came in and they went through some pretty tough times when they first started".
"He's got them that well programmed now that they all have confidence in what plans he's [got] and it just works like clockwork for them.
“Some of the stuff that 'Bails' has brought in has been really interesting … so it's definitely on the right track."
When asked if the team had followed Bailey's game plan against the Hawks, McDonald said: "Obviously not. [It was] not on purpose [that we didn't follow it though]."
Although McDonald said the loss was "embarrassing", he added that "confidence was not that high or 100 per cent" after the team's poor 2007 and a winless pre-season.
But he was adamant the playing group took plenty out of Monday's review of the match.
"The thing is there is always next week and we know as a group we've got the ability and we've just got to keep working at it to get it right," McDonald said.
"We're pretty confident if we can just keep focusing on the process that we'll get it right.
"For a start, each player has to have a hard look at themselves and everyone's got to lift to take the responsibility on themselves."
