Tom McDonald says it is a ‘strange’ feeling heading into Melbourne’s first preliminary final in 18 years

TOM McDonald says Melbourne players’ minds turned back to a 25-goal loss to Essendon to Essendon five years ago in the rooms last night as they come to grips with a ‘strange’ finals run.

Melbourne's Tom McDonald celebrates his goal in the first quarter. Picture: Michael Klein

MELBOURNE forward Tom McDonald has admitted it is a “strange feeling” qualifying for the club’s first preliminary final in 18 years, but says the Demons have growing belief and confidence they can get over West Coast and progress to a Grand Final.

Melbourne survived a final-quarter challenge to overcome Hawthorn by 33 points in their semi-final last night, the club’s sixth win from its past seven outings.

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McDonald said there were references made to the 148-point loss the Demons suffered to Essendon in Round 2, 2013 post-game last night, which highlighted the amazing turnaround the club has enjoyed.

“It is a strange feeling. A few of the boys remarked after the game that by the time we calmed down for five or 10 minutes it doesn’t quite feel as big as it does for other people,” McDonald said.

“It just feels like you’re playing another game, like it’s Round 22.

“Probably more so waking up this morning it’s a pretty cool feeling knowing we’re still going and have a chance to get into a Grand Final.

“One of the players made the remark, who wasn’t here at the stage when we lost by (148) to Essendon and we were going down the race and it was people pointing and spitting at us instead of cheering us off. So it is amazing how far we’ve come from that point in time four or five years ago to people being proud of the team that’s going out there and playing for them.”

Only three players who were part of that loss — McDonald and co-captains Jack Viney and Nathan Jones — are still at the club.

Melbourne players after their huge loss to Essendon in 2013.

The emotions were very different last night for Nathan Jones and Jack Viney.

McDonald said he had a few nerves when the Hawks cut the margin to 12 points with a Jarryd Roughead goal at the 11-minute-mark of the last quarter, but he was proud with his side’s response, which started with a Jake Melksham goal on the run from 50m.

“I was getting a bit nervous. A few of the Hawthorn players were telling us, ‘Don’t choke now’,” he said.

“And luckily we kicked the next couple to shut them up. You get a bit nervous but it wasn’t panic, it was just, ‘We’d want to fix this before it goes too far’.

“(The) Melksham goal was massive, left foot on the run. It got the confidence back in the room and I think we didn’t look back from there.”

Melbourne beat West Coast by 17 points at Perth Stadium in Round 22 but will face a bigger challenge against this time around against the Eagles, who were without key forwards Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling that day.

Tom McDonald will play a key role against the Eagles. Picture: Michael Klein

“I’m confident we can do it,” McDonald said of the side’s chances in next Saturday night’s preliminary final.

“It’s going to be a bigger ask in finals and they’ve got Kennedy back and a couple of their best players back so that’s going to make it tougher but I think having played there, seeing the stadium, we know how loud it is – it’s deafening over there. So we know the environment that we’re walking into. But that will give us confidence knowing we can play the ground well.”

Round 2, 2013: Essendon 28.16 (184) d Melbourne 5.6 (36)

Surviving Demons: Nathan Jones, Jack Viney, Tom McDonald.

No longer at the club: Jeremy Howe, James Frawley, Jack Grimes, Colin Garland, Dean Terlich, Jack Trengove, Mark Jamar, Matt Jones, Aaron Davey, Shannon Byrnes, Daniel Nicholson, Jack Watts, James Sellar, Mitchell Clark, Colin Sylvia, Jimmy Toumpas, Sam Blease, David Rodan, Tom Gillies.