NATIONALrecruiting manager Jason Taylor says draftee Oscar McDonald has followed asimilar pathway to the AFL, as his older brother Tom did to Melbourne – even tothe point of sharing the same number they were drafted.

TomMcDonald was picked up at No.53 in the 2010 NAB AFL Draft and Oscar joined himat the same selection number on Thursday night up on the Gold Coast.

“It’sa nice thing for the family – it could be a bit eerie, as they both tracked thesame way in their under 18 year,” Taylor told Dee TV. 

“Oscarhas been able to put a little more together as his season progressed, but he isvery much still a developing tall just like Tom was when he came in. But he isa good runner with a good attitude and if he can work as hard as Tom did thenhe will give himself a good chance.”

Taylorsaid with a smile that all clubs were winners right after the draft, but he wasgenuinely pleased with how Melbourne was able to snare star junior midfieldersChristian Petracca and Angus Brayshaw. 

“I thinkit’s a good result,” he said.

“Wewanted to continue to build hard and competitive midfielders, who can hit thescoreboard. I think we did that with our first two picks in Christian and Anguswith their big bodies and power they have. 

“Allthe boys come with good footy character and a willingness to compete, which isreally important for our football club right now. 

“It’sthe same as every year, we just put them in an order – and I know it soundssimplistic – but there is a lot of work that goes in that order.

“Youjust mark them off, but we have to focus on all areas of the ground. I know it’san old cliché, but we just had to take the best available player, but we putthe same amount of work that we did with picks two and three into our laterpicks in the draft.”

WithMelbourne having to wait until pick No.40 to snare its third player – AlexNeal-Bullen – Taylor conceded it was a nervous wait to see who would beavailable.

“I wasgetting a bit anxious towards pick 40,” he said.

Meanwhile,Taylor was confident the club had a few players up their sleeve for next week’sNAB AFL Rookie Draft, where two more players will finalise Melbourne’s list for2015.

“Idon’t think we need to do a lot of work for the rookie draft because of theclose gap between [the drafts],” he said.

“Weare pretty much prepared and ready to go for that. There might be one or twolittle things that we need to clear up.”