Anthony McDonald (born 13 June 1972) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). McDonald played his early football in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) with

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

and had stints at both the Carlton and Hawthorn reserves teams without being able to make it into the AFL. By the time he made his league debut in 1997, McDonald was 24, but played 19 consecutive games from round four to round 22. He appeared in six finals at Melbourne, including the

2000 AFL Grand Final The 2000 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Melbourne Football Club and the Essendon Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 2 September 2000 rather than in its usual last Sa ...

where, playing as a wingman, he had 12 disposals and four tackles in a loss. Two years later, McDonald retired to become a mortgage broker at Port Finance Group. For much of McDonald's career, he was one of three brothers playing in the AFL with his eldest brother

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

at Collingwood and youngest

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

a teammate at Melbourne.

External links

* *Holmesby, Russell and Main, Jim (2007). ''The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers''. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. 1972 births Living people Melbourne Football Club players Coburg Football Club players Old Xaverians Football Club players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) People educated at St Patrick's College, Ballarat {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub