Luke McDonald says a broken ankle was the catalyst for a ‘light bulb moment’, which has helped him to a career-best season.

McDonald's form has seen him to average 20 disposals and to successfully shutdown some of the game’s superstars this year. 

“It’s been a good year personally in terms of my form just to play some of the footy that I sort of always knew I’m capable of playing,” McDonald told Sportsday WA.

“The catalyst was on the back of last year, I broke my ankle in Round 18. 

“I was six years in to my career and hadn’t achieved anything I personally wanted to achieve, it was a bit of a lightbulb moment. 

“I worked really hard to get back into as good a nick as I possibly could because I couldn’t really train until after Christmas and to be honest, that time between Round 1 and 2 with that COVID break, was awesome for me. 

“I trained really hard with my roommate and it’s been good just to string a few games together and play a number of different roles.

“I’m feeling really confident in my footy at the moment and I suppose it’s been good to just to reward some of the guys who had faith in my over the journey and play some good footy.” 

McDonald says while the on-field results have been disappointing it’s been a good opportunity for the Kangaroos’ younger brigade.

“At the start of the year we started really well with those two wins against really good sides but form just fell away and it’s obviously been really disappointing to find ourselves where we are.

“I suppose if you look at a positive spin we’ve been able to unearth some really good young guys and get some games into those guys that probably wouldn’t have got games in previous years.

“So whilst its really disappointing where we find ourselves its been good to see some young blokes get some games and get some continuity.” 

With five Rising Stars in Bailey Scott, Tarryn Thomas, Cameron Zurhaar, Nick Larkey and Curtis Taylor over the past two seasons and the emergence of Luke Davies-Uniacke, Jy Simpkin, Jed Anderson, Jack Mahony and Tristan Xerri, McDonald says the future is in good hands.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence and faith in our list even as soon as next year, to really get us going up the ladder.

“LDU [Luke Davies-Uniacke] in particular the last three rounds, he’s really just growing in confidence and becoming a really, really solid contributor for us. 

“We’ve always heard about his talent but it’s been really good to see especially coming from two pretty interrupted pre-seasons and seasons with injury. He didn’t really get to do much pre-season as he had a few groin issues but he’s getting that power and confidence into his body and its going to be pleasing watching him over the next few seasons.”