Young leader Luke McDonald wants to let his footy do the talking as he returns to the North line-up against Gold Coast on Saturday night in Cairns.
The 23-year-old was suspended for one game during the JLT series for drinking on the club’s community camp, just days after teammate Jy Simpkin was hit by a motorbike after a boozy night out.
“I was disappointed in myself,” McDonald told North Media.
“I was with a few of the younger boys and ultimately had to miss a game but it was a good learning experience for me and a strong message for everyone at the footy club.”
McDonald said the amount of alcohol the group consumed was minimal, but the timing was the issue.
“On the back of the Jy incident and not having played well against Melbourne in Tasmania, it was more about the timing than anything,” McDonald explained.
“There’s a time and a place to have a beer and I obviously got that wrong and I certainly don’t think anyone will be doing that again.”
With 74 games under his belt, McDonald is already considered a leader because of North’s list rebuild. The Kangaroos have the most amount of players under the age of 25 and that has elevated his standing.
“We’re a young group and we’ll all learn from that and being the more senior member there, I should have known better,” McDonald said.
“When I started, there was Michael Firrito, Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie, Andrew Swallow and a heap of guys that had played a lot of football, but now we’ve got so many young blokes, it’s time for me, Ben Brown, Trent Dumont, Shaun Atley and those types to really step up and help the leadership group out.”
On the eve of the club’s season opener against the Suns, McDonald is hell-bent on putting the incident behind him.
“It was a good wake up call because I played pretty poorly in the first pre-season game so ever since then, I’ve just been training my arse off and doing everything I can to make sure we play well and win tomorrow night.
“There’s nothing more I can do now other than let my footy do the talking and play good footy; that’s why I’m here. I haven’t really thought about it since it all happened, it’s all about moving forward.”
