Player Watch #11: Luke "Two Dogs" McDonald (Part II) - Roo til end '26 - 2023/24 co captain w/ Jy

[R00StaR]

If only. But why would he throw away 2 extra years of pay

What would happen if he were heavily front loaded as he should've been?
Who knows maybe he's next 2 years are only 100k each and North are giving him the option to finish earlier.
Or perhaps its a troll lol
But then If he's last 2 years were that low he'd be worth keeping just for the depth and VFL.

 

[viccles]

Have the pay - just don't play

 

[Themanbun]

This is just spot on.

He stuffs something up and just smiles. Archer was in the spotlight a few weeks ago for mentally punishing himself for making a mistake. At the time, I believe it was Nathan Buckley, said that the leaders should have got to him and told him to not be so hard on himself.

It wouldn't have even crossed LMac's mind. Because he's not hard on himself after making a mistake. Just smile, think "how good is being the captain of a footy club" and move on without accountability.

On Pixel 8 Pro using BigFooty.com mobile app

Being able to brush off a mistake is, IMO a very good thing for an elite athlete to be able to do.

 

[Flawed Genius]

Being able to brush off a mistake is, IMO a very good thing for an elite athlete to be able to do.

Good thing Luke has had a lot of practice

 

[ferball]

Being able to brush off a mistake is, IMO a very good thing for an elite athlete to be able to do.

McKercher does it. If he didn't you can imagine that after one error he would be less inclined to take the game on the way he did previously.

 

[King Corey]

Being able to brush off a mistake is, IMO a very good thing for an elite athlete to be able to do.

Agree, as long they then implement some kind of incremental improvement or show the event was an anomaly

Your test opener goes out golden duck and smiles because it's a one off, sure

They do it 14 times in a row - not so much.

 

[Themanbun]

Agree, as long they then implement some kind of incremental improvement or show the event was an anomaly

Your test opener goes out golden duck and smiles because it's a one off, sure

They do it 14 times in a row - not so much.

Just because he doesn't break his fist on the turf doesn't mean he's not trying to correct. Highly doubt he is intentionally kicking it out on the full, and the aspersions from people here that he doesn't give a **** about his mistakes are ridiculously off base.

If he's unable to fix the mistakes despite his best efforts to do so, then it's on the coaches to make a call.

 

[Only Forwards]

They do it 14 times in a row - not so much.

They probably don't get the chance to do it 14 times in a row before someone stops them and says "how about we try someone else"

then it's on the coaches to make a call.

It was absolutely an error to roll with co-captains again. They have hemmed themselves in. Rightly or wrongly we don't drop captains. We have had the good and the bad of Luke this year. The good he plays within himself and fulfils a role game day. He's no match winner but he has the ability and capacity to play a role.

His worst is momentum sappingly bad with seemingly no recourse other than for him to front up again the next week.

two more rounds, make the call to move him from captaincy. (to be fair with his season I would be taking it off Jy also).

 

[DuckYeah]

We wont move forward as a club whilst we have these two broken losers as captains. They must be stripped of the captaincies.

 

[gokangas]

Confirmed from another good source that the club is having 'serious discussions' with him about his future. Retirement is a strong suggestion.

Edit: To be clear the tip is NM is encouraging LMac to retire.

 

[Blightys Barrel]

1. He can’t take an uncontested mark.
2. He cannot kick consistently to a target.
3. Worst Captain in the competition.
4. Pay him out

 

[The Nostradamus]

Confirmed from another good source that the club is having 'serious discussions' with him about his future. Retirement is a strong suggestion.

I think it just needs to be made clear to him he is playing vfl only next year so do you want that or to retire early and the club be willing to give him the years pay out

 

[koshari]

Confirmed from another good source that the club is having 'serious discussions' with him about his future. Retirement is a strong suggestion.

Edit: To be clear the tip is NM is encouraging LMac to retire.

Best hint would be dropping him to the magoos however we are hardly flush with blokes kicking the selectors door down. Everyone cries for blokes to be dropped only for other triers to come back in.

 

[Reagan Smash]

10 years in a professional environment and still moves like a busted ass .
That effort on weightman ( in the 3rd I think) was embarrassing

 

[rickety]

Best hint would be sending him to magoo! however we are hardly flush with blokes kicking the selectors door down. Everyone cries for blokes to be dropped only for other triers to come back in.

Go and play with Benny, Luke :-D

 

[FootySmartSimpson]

Just because he doesn't break his fist on the turf doesn't mean he's not trying to correct. Highly doubt he is intentionally kicking it out on the full, and the aspersions from people here that he doesn't give a **** about his mistakes are ridiculously off base.

If he's unable to fix the mistakes despite his best efforts to do so, then it's on the coaches to make a call.

It isn’t really his fault. He is never going to be a Simpson and pull the plug when he sees the decline, especially when we are still going so poor.

The call has to be made by the coaching staff. There were genuinely tunes this year when he wasn’t a top 25 player in the team, but he was still being backed in.

 

[Mute Point]

10 years in a professional environment and still moves like a busted ass .
That effort on weightman ( in the 3rd I think) was embarrassing

Was that the one where the ball was kicked inside 50 quite high?
He was slow off the mark & knew it so he dropped his head while the ball was still in flight & 4 steps behind his opponent. When he looked up he had that grin on his face while Weightman took an easy mark & proceeded to slot the goal.
Now of course I'm sure he's not happy about it & that look he gives is just natural for him but it just looks strange & I wonder what impression it gives to his team mates seeing your captain look this way.

 

[Sphynx]

Confirmed from another good source that the club is having 'serious discussions' with him about his future. Retirement is a strong suggestion.

Edit: To be clear the tip is NM is encouraging LMac to retire.

I'm glad the club isn't burying their head in the sand.

He's absolutely cooked from a mental point of view. Looks like a guy with the world on his shoulders.

He's not soft, never has been and never will be and he's got my respect for the way that he plays the game from that point of view.


However, his confidence as a top level footballer is gone. He looks utterly confused with the structures, what his role actually is between a lock down and/or rebounding defender, to the point he provides neither now.

He gets to quite a lot of contests to spoil, goes in with double fits getting both hands on the ball. A confident 200+ game AFL medium defender simply intercepts marks 90% of these double fisted spoils. Infact, a 22 game kid in Jackson Archer HAS been intercepting these types of balls.

You could forgive LMAC to an extent if he was flying for intercepts and dropping contested marks, you are in the same position as him coming in with double fits smashing it back in the path of their runners.

He's averaging career high spoils this year, that should tell you plenty about his confidence at the moment.

He's averaging just about career low pressure and tackles though. That should also tell you how often he's getting lost in transition and by the structure changes. He's also getting almost career lows in disposals. As bad as his third year, which was an absolute shocker, which saw him out of the side on multiple occasions.

He's never been an athletic guy and he's one that's already definitely lost a yard of whatever pace he did have.


I hope the club is offering retirement, and a development coach role/VFL playinh coach. For whatever else, we have heard glowing endorsements to the amount of work his put into some of the younger players. It might also be the carrot we need to convince him to retire with (3?) years left on a deal.

 

[Mr north man]

Confirmed from another good source that the club is having 'serious discussions' with him about his future. Retirement is a strong suggestion.

Edit: To be clear the tip is NM is encouraging LMac to retire.

He won’t needs the $$$$ to run his super box and will be captain round 1 next year in the AFL

 

[gokangas]

He won’t needs the $$$$ to run his super box and will be captain round 1 next year in the AFL

I suspect you are right. Just saying what I hear. Not sure if he will be captain but I suspect he plays on.

 

[shintemaster]

I suspect you are right. Just saying what I hear. Not sure if he will be captain but I suspect he plays on.

We still have plenty of players to churn and not enough picks to do the job this year. I couldn't care less if he stays on the list but the time for walk up start is gone. Up to him whether he is still interested.

 

[Psychic Roo]

Was that the one where the ball was kicked inside 50 quite high?
He was slow off the mark & knew it so he dropped his head while the ball was still in flight & 4 steps behind his opponent. When he looked up he had that grin on his face while Weightman took an easy mark & proceeded to slot the goal.
Now of course I'm sure he's not happy about it & that look he gives is just natural for him but it just looks strange & I wonder what impression it gives to his team mates seeing your captain look this way.

Archer accelerates into W and cops the 50 if needed. So does comben. Even corr does. But every now and again, spoils it or they drop it wondering where he is. Thats the difference. Teams isolate lmac on anyone they can. He is ok third man in but horrific as an isolated 1 on 1 defender. The whole afl knows. And they let him have the ball when he crabs. He is never manned up and they ket him kick it. Its > 50% they get it back so its smart.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

He’s the cookiest of cooks to ever be cooked.

 

[Cyber_punk]

I hope the club is offering retirement, and a development coach role/VFL playinh coach. For whatever else, we have heard glowing endorsements to the amount of work his put into some of the younger players. It might also be the carrot we need to convince him to retire with (3?) years left on a deal.

Please god no.

I haven't seen any other player smiling after a loss as much as Luke. We don't need that example being set.

 

[Harris 10]

For those in the know, what are academy FS picks looking like next year? Pies have a FS any others looking likely?

It will make it interesting with the new points system coming in and needing more points to match.