While Jamie Charman played the bulk of the minutes in the ruck, the 203cm McDonald also acquitted himself well and kicked a superb 45m goal on the run from an acute angle in the final quarter.
Tonight's game was his first official outing in the senior team since Round 14 of 2003, when he damaged the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee.
"It' was just great to get Beau out there because up to about six months ago, maybe a bit longer, it looked like he might never play again," Matthew said.
"He's got a lot of life and energy for a big guy. We knew we had to play him in some lower tempo games before we played him at this level and we knew we wanted to play Charmo for quite a lot of minutes.
"But I think he was good when he was on and proved he can be a good player for us."
Although the evening was tempered by injuries to key midfielders Richard Hadley (knee - sustained in the reserves curtain-raiser) and Nigel Lappin (ankle - first quarter), Matthews still managed to find other encouraging signs.
The rookie-listed Scott Harding again caught the eye with his pace and poise, Michael Rischitelli had another solid game in the midfielder and ex-Sydney Swan Ben Fixter was hard at it and saw plenty of the ball.
Fixter sat out the last quarter for precautionary reasons after "tightening" up. Justin Leppitsch, on the other hand, surprised slightly by starting in defence and moving so freely that the back problems that kept him out of the last eight games of 2005 seem a distant memory.
"(Some) of the positives of the pre-season are the Scott Hardings, the Michael Rischitellis and Ben Fixter. They are three who are probably pretty close to our best team and they've actually added a bit to us," Matthews explained.
"I think Daniel Bradshaw was good in defence and we're wanting to persevere with that The other really good news was Justin Leppitsch, who looked like the Justin Leppitsch we've come to admire."
Star centre-half-forward Jonathan Brown, meanwhile, roamed far and wide in search of the football and must now be close to recapturing best form.
Ostetitis pubis, for which he had off-season surgery, robbed Brown of much of his power during the last six weeks of last season. But he displayed power aplenty with a magnificent second quarter goal on the run, leaving a would-be Collingwood tackler flailing in his wake.
"Browny's second halves are normally better than his first halves," Matthews said of Brown, who was quietish in the first quarter, very good in the second and excellent thereafter.
" I wanted him to get out and run because he sometimes wants to play forward 50m a bit too much. I want him up running, up in the back 50m every now and then. I want him to be a running centre-half-forward, not a goalkicking inside 50 players necessarily.
"When he doest that there are not too many big guys can keep up with him."
