Jurrah hails from the remote Yuendumu community in Central Australia and looms as one of the great AFL stories if he can make it in the big league.
The 20-year-old indigenous forward has faced plenty of challenges in his quest to play for Melbourne with English not being his first language.
McDonald said he is a project player, but one with plenty of long-term potential.
"Liam Jurrah is probably going to take a little bit of time, but he's got some freakish talent and you can see that when he gets out to training," McDonald told afl.com.au at the captains' day at Docklands.
"He's had a couple of injury niggles, but apart from that, he could be a really exciting player for us in the future.
"You don't really know his whole background and he's had a couple of articles done on him. You used to go up and speak to him and the only thing he'd say was: 'Good'."
"But then you realise he has got a language barrier, but as his personality grows, he is opening up a lot more and he feels a lot more confident speaking to the boys. He's settling in really well."
Melbourne’s top two picks in last year’s draft, Jack Watts (No.1) and Sam Blease (No.17) are still studying year 12 in 2009.
But McDonald is excited at the prospects of draftees Jamie Bennell (No.35 in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft), Neville Jetta (No.51) and Rohan Bail (No.64).
"Our two top two picks are still at school and although they're not so much the bottom picks, they (Bennell, Jetta and Bail) are guys who are exciting and combining them with our higher picks (Watts and Blease) will be good for the future," McDonald said.
"Jack and Sam are still at school and that's their main priority at this stage, which it should be.
"They're doing a separate program that'll take eight to 10 weeks and all going well after that period, they'll have a good base under their belt to be able to go out and play games."
