His first was a stunning entrance to the top level - a booming strike on the run from just inside 50 metres, which connected with his foot beautifully.

“I was just hoping Chad [Warner] would pop the handball over to me and then he did. As I got the ball I looked around again and I was almost surprised that I was in so much space - they talk about [how] in AFL’s everything’s so quick, and I just had a paddock and took off as fast as I can, I kicked it, didn’t let myself think about it too much,” he said.

“To flush it like I did and to watch it sail pretty straight is something I won’t forget.”

McDonald has plenty of work in front of him and, it seems, plenty more memories ahead to be made. His first game alongside Franklin, a childhood hero who has mentored him since he joined the club, looms as the next, and a special one at that.

“You always turn on the TV when Bud was playing growing up. He’s one of the greatest to ever do it and someone that’s hard to emulate and build your game around,” McDonald said.

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“But you always try to take little things out of his game and to be with him every day of the week, watching him first-hand, as close as it gets, is something pretty amazing, and I don’t take that for granted.

“Just the way he reads and unfolds the game so early, before anyone, is something that I’m trying to keep learning and developing in my game. No one reads it better. How fast he uses his body movements and patterns and strength, it’s just something that you sit back and admire.

“I’ll be running as much dummy-leads and fake leads as I can for him.”