OSCAR McDonald played arguably his best game for the season, on one of the biggest stages, so far, this year.

On Queen’s Birthday, the 21-year-old tall defender, with 26 games under his belt, stood tall with 18 disposals, 13 intercepts and 11 contested possessions in front of more than 70,000 people at the MCG.

He was among Melbourne’s best in its four-point win over Collingwood and it was yet another encouraging step in McDonald’s emerging career.

Selected at No.53 in the 2014 NAB AFL Draft, McDonald spoke openly about his form this year and his career to date, which started when he made his AFL debut against Fremantle at Domain Stadium in round 22, 2015 – the same day Nathan Jones played his 200^th game.

“I’m slowly trying to find some form. I had a bit of a rough start to the year. I lost my way a bit, in terms of contest and aggression work,” he told melbournefc.com.au.

I’ve been putting in a lot of work with ‘Twig’ (Jade Rawlings) a fair bit and catch-up with Goody (Simon Gooodwin) and Macca (Brendan McCartney) and we’re pretty clear on the plan going forward. It’s starting to show out in games.

“It was good to finally piece together something that will be more to come. I held a couple of marks, when I dropped them the other week. I hit a couple of kicks that I missed the other week. So, it’s good to see it come out in games.”

Although highly-rated within the club, McDonald said he was aware of criticism towards his game, but added that it wasn’t something he worried about.

“I’m not too fussed about that really. I’ve had my ups and downs, but I don’t really read too much into that,” he said.  

“We’re in a three-week block at the moment – the Collingwood game being the first week of that – so it’s about what I can do to make myself better to help the team, in this block.

“As much outside noise as there is, we’re pretty confident that the plan we’ve got set going forward will work out for us.”

Despite being a young tall in defence, McDonald said he relished the responsibility and was inspired by other youngsters shining in the Melbourne team. 

“It’s interesting, because you see someone like Clayton Oliver and he’s already one of the best players in the competition. There are more young players coming out and performing, because they know what they have to do for their team and coaches.

“I’m slowly getting used to the physical requirements of the game at full-back or centre half-back, but you’re going to have your ups and downs. The North Melbourne match in round nine – I had a shocking game. I’ve got to keep working on a few deficiencies and keep my strengths up.

“In terms of handling the role of a tall back, I think our backline does it really well. We try and help out as much as possible. I’ve got Sam Frost, Michael Hibberd or Bernie Vince coming over as third-man up, so it gives you confidence in each other to get the job done as a group.”

Now into the second half of the season, McDonald said he was eager to keep building with his side as Melbourne looks to capitalise on a promising start to the year.

“We’ve got the Bulldogs coming up on Sunday and we plan to give them a red-hot crack,” he said.