DEFENDER Tom McDonald says being drafted remains the highlight of his career so far, but in the lead-up to his 50^th AFL match, the key defender is hoping finals will soon overtake his favourite football memory.

The 21-year-old, who was drafted at No.53 in the NAB AFL 2010 Draft, said being drafted was a moment he’ll never forget, but he’s eager to play a key part of Melbourne’s finals prospects in the future.

“Getting drafted is still probably the highlight. The feeling when your name gets called out is probably one of the best feelings I’ve had in a long time. It’s just an excitement and a rush that I haven’t felt since,” he told Dee TV.

“I’m looking forward to playing finals and hopefully that trumps it pretty quickly.

“A few of the good wins have been outstanding and a few this year have been really good against Richmond, and [two] years ago when we beat Essendon and we were bottom and they were [second on] top of the ladder – that was a pretty exciting win. A few individual wins have been pretty special as well.”

Although McDonald has played in just 10 wins from his first 49 matches, he has relished every moment.

“I’ve loved it. There have been ups and downs – and a fair few downs on the actual field – but there’s still a lot of excitement playing AFL, even when we were losing by quite a bit,” he said.

“This season seems to have validated a lot of the hard work that’s going in and we’re starting to see a few results. It’s good to see things coming [together], rather than just struggling down the bottom like we have the last couple of years.

“I didn’t play much in my first season, but since then I’ve been able to be in the side pretty consistently. I’ve been lucky with injuries in most cases, so it’s come around pretty quickly.”

Despite reaching his milestone, McDonald said he hoped it was just the start. 

“Hopefully it’s only a quarter or fifth of a way into my career and it’s not really much of a milestone at all,” he said.

“It’s exciting to know I’ve played 50 games and I’ve beaten the average AFL footballer in terms of games played, so it’s nice to get here, but I’m looking forward to the next 150 to 200.”

In terms of how he’ll feel running out against Collingwood on Queen’s Birthday, McDonald said he would be “pretty nervous”.

“I don’t normally get nervous before the games, but when there’s a big crowd … you feel as though everyone is watching what you do in the warm-up – they probably aren’t, but you almost get that feeling that they are,” he said.

“It definitely brings a bit of added intensity to the start of the game, but I won’t be thinking about the 50^th game once I’m out there doing the warm-up.”