In front of family and friends, the 29-year-old kicked two goals in the 38 point win, which was the Demons 15^th straight victory.

Speaking to the Wimmera Mail-Times on Tuesday McDonald was delighted with the way the day panned out.

READ MORE:

"It was so good," McDonald said.

"The best part was just having the kids and family involved on the ground beforehand and after the game having them all there. So that was really special.

"Obviously winning makes it a bit easier to celebrate with everyone and have a good time."

McDonald has played all 200 of his matches with the Demons after being drafted by the club with pick 53 in 2010.

He debuted in 2011 against the Gold Coast as a defender before eventually finding his way to the forward line in the coming seasons.

The start of his career coincided with some extremely lean years for the Demons and subsequently he only played in nine wins from his first 39 games.

The club's struggles were somewhat validated however in 2021, when the Demons secured a drought breaking grand final win over the Western Bulldogs - in which McDonald played a vital role.

Although they were challenging times, McDonald said he learned plenty from his early days in the AFL.

"When you're going through what we went through at the start it was really dark days of 100 point losses. You probably never thought we would get to the stage where we were the ones who could dish them out every now and then," he said.

"I think there's been really good life lessons from it about perseverance and what was required to be successful.

"I think it actually helped me personally in my career early days. When I was a defender you're learning to defend under the most heat you could ever be under and so you actually start to hone your craft on how to defend one-on-one and defend under pressure."

To date McDonald has kicked 150 goals across his career, with his most prolific season in front of goal coming in 2018 when he won the Demons' goalkicking award with 53 goals.

In the 2021 grand final victory he kicked two goals, including the final major.

Because of the intense schedules associated with playing AFL, the Dees' forward admitted he hasn't had a great deal of time to reflect on the memorable win.

"It's strange to think back to it now when you're back into the next season and it just disappears so quickly from your mind when you're in season," he said.

MORE NEWS:

"We get to go back to Perth this week which is awesome to go back to where we were (in the grand final) and play at the ground again which we seem to play pretty well at.

"I just look back on it and think about how much fun it was and how much it meant to everyone around us. I'd love to get back again and do it in Melbourne but Perth will always be pretty special to the boys who played there and played in that grand final."

After eight straight wins to start the season, McDonald and the Demons are already looking likely to feature late in September again.

Like most associated with the club, McDonald is thrilled with the Demons' blistering start.

"You can't complain with the way the team's playing," he said.

"I think we've been thrown a heap of different challenges and while we haven't always been dominant, we've found ways to win essentially.

"I think it's 90% of the way there, there's a few things we can tidy up on but there's a lot of really good stuff happening."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: