Retired #43: Anthony "Walla" McDonald-Tipungwuti - Wins a flag with the Mildura Imperials

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Contract Status: Unrestricted Free Agent 2023
My Boy Draft 2023: Pick 5, citizen-erased
 
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just watched the replay and even i got a lump in the throat and welled up a little when Tippa came on - was a beautiful moment
 

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After making his first official return to an AFL field in 588 days, forward Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti will be on a modified training program after suffering quad soreness.

McPherson says McDonald-Tipungwuti will have his progress closely monitored throughout the week and will not be risked if he doesn’t adequately recover in time for Sunday.

“He pulled up sore from his first game back in a long time,” McPherson said.

“We’ll monitor his progress over the next couple of days and we’ll have more info later in the week to make a call.”
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Was happy enough to do what we did and enjoy the moment….but he’s clearly not physically ready.

Based on progress until now…I think it’ll be the second half of the year until we see him in really good nick and able to play 4 quarters at AFL level intensity.
 

Inside the rebuilding of Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and his emotional return to football​

It is the unbeatable feel good footy story of the year. But what was going on behind the scenes before Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti returned to Essendon? Get the inside story.



It was meant to be a beer and pizza night for two mates – retired Bombers Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti and Patrick Ambrose – catching up for the first time in months. But it turned out to be the first step on one of the AFL’s most emotional 2023 comeback stories.
McDonald-Tipungwuti was in the middle of a camping trip full of self discovery and cultural connection around Australia.

Far from the madding MCG crowds, he hit the road with his ute, his caravan, his blue heeler, Drover, and at times his mum Jane, and took in Alice Springs, Darwin, Katherine, Broome and his childhood home on the Tiwi Islands.
On this mid-September 2022 night he was over in Perth catching up with his former teammate Ambrose, who had retired from the Bombers in late 2021.
McDonald-Tipungwuti reluctantly pulled the pin on his career in May 2022, just after his 29th birthday, having lost his spark and passion for the game after a few personal challenges and a series of injuries and fitness issues.

The two agreed to have a few beers, share some pizza and sit back in Ambrose’s loungeroom and watch one of the AFL finals matches.
As Ambrose recalled this week: “We walked down to get a pizza near my house and one of my neighbours is a mad footy fan. He was saying to Walla (McDonald-Tipungwuti), ‘You are too good to retire mate, what are you doing?’ Walla only had one slice (of pizza) when he usually would have had a bit more. I was having a beer and usually he would never turn down a cold beer. But he wouldn’t have a beer that night.

“We were watching the footy. Walla was watching it so closely that I had the feeling he was planning something.”
[PLAYERCARD]Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti[/PLAYERCARD] celebrates his goal in his return to AFL football. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti celebrates his goal in his return to AFL football. Picture: Getty Images

By the end of the night, McDonald-Tipungwuti confessed to Ambrose: “Yep, I’m going to make a comeback.”
Six months on, Ambrose was sitting in the same spot in his lounge room during round 1 watching from afar as McDonald-Tipungwuti brought the red and black faithful to its collective feet again at the MCG.

In his first AFL game in almost 600 days, he came on as Essendon’s sub and kicked what will be one of the most emotional goals this AFL season. “It was awesome,” Ambrose said. “He has definitely come a long way in a short time.”

Just like his outback adventure in the second half of last year, McDonald-Tipungwuti’s return to football hasn’t been an easy road.
He has worked hard to get himself back into the AFL system, even if insiders maintain he still has a significant pathway ahead to become a match-fit contributor regularly.

Despite already losing six or seven kilos, he knows he needs to lose more. Quad soreness meant he wasn’t able to back it up against Gold Coast last week.
The club is unsure when he will be right to go again, but has backed him and the conditioning staff to keep doing the work to ensure he is back as soon as possible.

As Essendon general manager of football Josh Mahoney said this week: “He still has got a valuable career ahead of him if he keeps doing the work, not only as a player (for Essendon) but also as a role model for other players.”

Essendon players couldn’t wait to get around McDonald-Tipungwuti after his goal. Picture: Getty Images

Essendon players couldn’t wait to get around McDonald-Tipungwuti after his goal. Picture: Getty Images

RETIREMENT
FOR Dyson Heppell, the measure of McDonald-Tipungwuti’s happiness has always been his cheeky smile. When it beams, he’s at his best.
It’s been that way since the pair were Gippsland Power teammates in 2010, dreaming of what the game might one day do for them.
“He was always bouncing around with a smile on his face,” Heppell said of the young McDonald-Tipungwuti, who arrived in Melbourne from the Tiwi Islands as a teenager.

So, when Heppell watched first-hand Walla’s cheeky grin vanish in the early stages of last year, he knew there was a problem.
As McDonald-Tipungwuti wrestled with his future last May, he stayed a few nights at Mahoney’s house. “He had lost the passion for training and for trying to work his way back, and it is such a hard game when that happens,” Mahoney said
.
“The night before it all happened, we had gone for a walk and we talked through a lot of things.”
Mahoney arrived home from the Bombers’ Tullamarine base the following day to find McDonald-Tipungwuti seated at the kitchen table waiting for him.
“He was sitting there and said that he wanted to have a chat,” Mahoney said. “It was sudden, but it got to the stage where it was the right decision for Anthony to step away from the game.”

An emotional McDonald-Tipungwuti publicly retired the following day in a tearful address to his teammates.
When his facade broke and the tears began to flow, he was consoled by his then skipper Heppell.
His career looked like being stuck forever on 126 AFL games and 153 goals, with a highlight reel of run down tackles and instinctive goals almost the parting gift for the fans.

“It probably didn’t cross my mind at that time that he would ever be back,” Heppell said.
Ambrose agreed: “I could tell he was burnt out … he needed to somehow get the fire back.”

ROAD BACK TO FOOTY

SOMETIMES the best way to find yourself is to hit the road and reconnect with your past.

McDonald-Tipungwuti packed his car and left on a road trip around Australia that took in indigenous communities, meeting and connecting with elders and friends, learning about his past and preparing for his future. He didn’t expect the road would lead him back to AFL football.

But those close to him insist he would never have played AFL game No.127 without the lessons of that road trip.

“He was doing a big lap of Australia with (his dog) Drover and his mum,” Ambrose said.

McDonald-Tipungwuti has spoken recently about what the trip around Australia meant to him and how he was able to find himself.

Wherever he went, the message was the same as the one that Ambrose’s neighbour gave him – at his best he was too good not to have another crack at AFL football.

As Essendon’s post-season was mired in controversy and change, the whispers started to reach his former teammates that Walla was reconsidering his future.

Heppell sent him a few text messages to try and “sniff” out an answer.

“He is pretty limited in his text (responses), he doesn’t like to give away too much,” Heppell said. “You are sometimes lucky to get one back from him.”

There was also another possible suitor in Fremantle. Dockers coach Justin Longmuir had liked one of his Instagram posts, a connection which led to an informal meeting.

But the pull of Essendon was strong, and the plan offered up by the Bombers new coach Brad Scott was too good to knock back.

There were no guarantees but the communication lines were open.

“There were different people (at Essendon) keeping in contact with him in different ways,” Mahoney said. “But it wasn’t until he got back (to Melbourne) that he started to talk a bit more about the potential of playing football again.

“Brad had been appointed coach at that stage and was keen to talk to him and to see if there was any chance he would consider coming back to Essendon.”

The Bombers were prepared to offer him a spot on the list, a one year deal on limited figures, with the AFL open to allowing McDonald-Tipungwuti to return to Essendon.

Mahoney added: “The meeting with Brad was as much about the new coach wanting to understand where Anthony was coming from, his background, his decision making and Brad explaining to him how he was going to coach him, and what he wanted from him.”

Brad Scott and McDonald-Tipungwuti in his return match. Picture: Getty Images

Brad Scott and McDonald-Tipungwuti in his return match. Picture: Getty Images

‘HE BLEW UP PRETTY QUICKLY‘’

HEPPELL didn’t know what to expect … but was pleasantly surprised when McDonald-Tipungwuti turned up to his first training session in November last year two weeks earlier than expected.

And, while he was still in sore need of shedding some kilos, he threw himself into it from the first Monday he turned up and completed a tough Friday running session that week.

“He blew up pretty quickly,” Heppell said. “I expected that to be the case, but he loved it.

“He was out there with the boys, chatting with them. It was like us saying to him, ‘Mate, we don’t expect you to be flying overnight. But you need to keep training and keep up the consistency of training’ – and that’s what he has done.”

Scott and the Bombers ensured Tipungwuti wouldn’t be left on his own as he worked slowly – and sometimes painfully – to improve a fitness base that was a long way off AFL standards.

Heppell maintained he needed a football in his hands and to be around his teammates.

“It was a conscious decision made by Brad and the high performance staff that allowed him to not miss a session that we wanted him to do through the pre-season,” Mahoney said.

“The decision was made that he would do all the fitness drills (with a footy in his hands).”

The Bombers know he has a fair way to go – and must keep on top of his dietary issues – if he wants to turn one comeback game into a sustained run of matches.

Incremental gains have been important, with Heppell saying one moment at the tail end of the season convinced him of Walla’s intent.

“He has been smashing sessions off the back of training by himself, to try to drop that weight and get himself in better nick,” Heppell said.

“Usually, you have to push him through the door and help him do it. He would be trying to dodge that extra session wherever he could, with his cheeky smile.

“For me, there was a moment that showed a different side to him. I had a crook foot and was cross training by myself. He was watching what I was doing and he jumped into my session off the back of his own. He wouldn’t have done that in the past.”

McDonald-Tipungwuti is still a Dons fan favourite. Picture: Getty Images

McDonald-Tipungwuti is still a Dons fan favourite. Picture: Getty Images

THE MOMENT, THE FUTURE

McDonald-Tipungwuti never believed he could have played in round 1, let alone score an emotional last-quarter goal in the Bombers’ big win over Hawthorn.

But he got there … just.

It was a risk, given it would have been a stretch for him to play a full game if a teammate went down with a first-term injury. But the Bombers were prepared to take it.

Heppell didn’t even know he was coming on the field, until he heard the roar of the crowd.

The red and black faithful knew it was a significant moment.

The connection between McDonald-Tipungwuti and Essendon fans has always been tight.

That’s partly because of his backstory as the kid from the Tiwi Islands who overcame a tough start to life before making his mark in the AFL.

No one knows how long this comeback story will run for, but the fact that he is smiling again is the most important part, according to those closest to him.
 

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Expected to train fully and be available to play
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    MiguelM said:
    IMO, another week in the VFL with the aim of getting him ready for Anzac day.

    He didn't do a lot of running in his last VFL game.
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    Wouldn't be near fit enough. Was gassed from less than a quarter in round 1, got injured, played last week where he apparently did a lot of walking, likely due to lacking fitness.

    I want to see him in the seniors as much as anyone but not as a token selection. He needs to get to work and earn it which means running out vfl games.
     
    Pweter said:
    Wouldn't be near fit enough. Was gassed from less than a quarter in round 1, got injured, played last week where he apparently did a lot of walking, likely due to lacking fitness.

    I want to see him in the seniors as much as anyone but not as a token selection. He needs to get to work and earn it which means running out vfl games.
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    How long do you think he needs? Would he be ready by Dreamtime?

    On SM-G920I using BigFooty.com mobile app
     
    Seems he would be better off doing a 4 week fitness block rather than playing not fully fit in the VFL and limited chance of getting seniors other than as a sub. But hard to do that without a bunch of injuries now that we have Hobbs, Guelfi, Snelling, Hind etc all recovered from injuries and pushing hard for selection themselves.
     

    Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti​

    10 disposals, four tackles, two goals

    ‘Walla’s’ forward half pressure was the highlight. When we look at our goals from turnovers, he seems to be there with a tackle, intercept or spoil. He worked so hard on his defensive pressure that he ended up getting two goals form that, so that set up his attacking game.
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    Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti​

    10 disposals, five marks, two tackles

    His pressure was great. He was in and out of the game a little bit but when he one the ball, he made really good decisions. He set up Anthony (Munkara) for his first goal.

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    Retired #43: Anthony "Walla" McDonald-Tipungwuti - Wins a flag with the Mildura Imperials

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