Right from the start of pre-season, Luke McDonald was keen to make 2020 his year.

While the 25-year-old has long been a regular in the North Melbourne side, he’s the first to admit it was time to step things up.

“The pre-season was really important for me. I broke my ankle last year and I sort of had a bit of a lightbulb moment to be honest, where I was just like ‘geez, I’m going into my seventh year, I probably haven’t done much in my career’,” McDonald revealed to North Media.

“I just hooked in, did a lot of training and got in as best condition as I could.”

The hard work quickly paid off.

Thrown the challenge of matching up on Toby Greene in round two, McDonald played a key role in the Roos’ win. 

Within the next month, roles on Dylan Shiel, Marcus Bontempelli and Dustin Martin followed, with the North number 21 taking the points week-by-week.

Of course, having Ben Jacobs as your best mate is pretty handy when you're looking for the tricks of the trade.  

“I suppose it’s pretty easy to learn from Benny. He’s probably the best tagger of all time,” McDonald added.

“He’s certainly helped me out.”

Moved back to defence in the last fortnight, McDonald has been just as impressive, racking up a career-high 35 disposals against Adelaide.

“I’m just loving playing under ‘Shawry’ (Rhyce Shaw), and playing with the boys,” he added.

“I’m just really enjoying my footy at the moment.”

Watch the full interview below.