ACCORDING to the McDonald brothers, their mum Cath was “in hysterics” when Oscar – the younger of the two McDonald brothers now at Melbourne – was drafted by the club at No.53 in last Thursday’s NAB AFL Draft.

Oscar explained the moment, at a media conference held at the MCG on Wednesday, when his name was called out by the Demons.  

“Mum and Dad and my older sister were all jumping up and couldn’t believe it, but I think we got it on camera and it was a pretty up and about moment,” he said.

“As soon as that happened, the word got out and there was about 10 or 20 other people, who came over to our house and celebrated, so it was a good night.”

Tom, who has played 60 AFL matches with Melbourne since 2011, said he got the phone call “straight away” when he found out Oscar would be joining him at Melbourne.

“Mum was in hysterics. [Coach] Paul Roos said he had never heard a mother get so excited in his life, so they’re (the parents) pretty happy. The travel they do [from country Victoria], just to come and see me, was enough, let alone [Oscar] going over to WA or something like that, so they’re pretty happy,” he said.

Tom said he was getting text messages from teammate Colin Garland, saying that Oscar was “going to get to us and he’s going to slip to 53”.

“I thought ‘it’s not going to happen, it’s too strange’, but it happened in the end,” he said.

Tom said he didn’t want Oscar to follow his exact same path. Instead, he was hopeful Oscar would find his own way in the game.

“It’s a fine balance of how I let him walk his own journey, but I just try to help him with what it takes to be a pro and the little things that might help him to have a long career, hopefully.”

Tom jokingly said he might have to ask Melbourne for a trade in a couple of years, if Oscar took his spot in defence.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said with a laugh.

“But I think we can play together and I think we’re reasonably athletic and we could play taller or smaller – we could play in the same team.

“I need to improve a lot myself, he needs to develop and get ready to play AFL football, so there is a long way before we get to that stage.”