DEFENDER Tom McDonald says 2016 was an “important” year for Melbourne as it enters the new pre-season.

The 24-year-old, who played 22 games in 2016, said while it was far from a perfect season, there was still plenty gained from the year.

“There have been ups and downs but all-in-all, it’s been a success,” he told Melbourne TV.

“To have 10 wins – although not amazing – from where we’ve come from, it’s been a big step.

“Our biggest progression has been the ability to stay with the top teams. Where we let ourselves down were the losses to teams that we probably should have won against.”

Personally, McDonald said he was happy with his season after initially taking some time to adjust to Melbourne’s evolving backline structure.

“I had a couple of down games while I was ironing my role at the start of the year but in the back-half of the year especially, I really understood what was needed of me and how to play and how the backline started to work together,” he said.

“We’re a very new side with lots of new faces and a few of the guys I’ve played a lot of my footy with weren’t there as much so it was a real development year but all-in-all, a pretty successful one for myself.

“I still have plenty of things to take out of it and work on though.”

While counting round 20’s win over 2015 premiers Hawthorn as a highlight, McDonald said some of the club’s losses had been just as valuable.

“The performance against West Coast over there [in Perth], although it was a loss, gave the boys a lot of confidence,” he said.

“Given how dominant West Coast is at Domain Stadium, it showed we can compete anywhere which is really important.

“Even another loss at the start of the year against the Kangaroos in Tassie – to be down 45 points at quarter time and to come back and be right in it until the end, showed how far we’ve come.

“Although some of those highlights are losses, they really showed us the way forward and we probably learned more from those games than the ones we won.”