McDonald starts with blaze
JOSH McDonald says a preseason tailored to enhance his mindset was the inspiration behind Saturday’s matchwinning knock against Melbourne.
The normally aggressive McDonald played a mature, reserved knock of 92 as Geelong collected a 36-run win over the Demons at Geelong Cricket Ground.
“I’m rapt,” he said of the innings.
“It was good to get some out of the middle. I actually didn’t hit them that well, but I managed to get through it.”
With a new opening partner in Hayden Butterworth, McDonald played a patient innings before exploding through the middle overs.
He was eventually out for 92 from 94 deliveries as the Cats set Melbourne 276 from their 50 overs.
“I got to take down the spinners with the short boundary,” McDonald said of the flurry of runs late.
“In the middle overs the field’s out and a few boundaries and a couple of sixes got me back to a run a ball.
“But in the first 10 overs I faced 12 balls. Hayden faced most of them.”
Butterworth ( 46 from 51) and McDonald put on 70 for the first wicket before captain Eamonn Vines (44 from 61), Angus Boyd (25 from 27) and Brenton McDonald (20 from 36) provided their side with a solid platform on a belter of a pitch.
The bowlers then went to work, restricting the Demons to 9-240, with Brody Couch (4-32) and Dom McGlinchey (2-27) leading the attack.
Sam Harper was dynamic at the top of the innings, belting 114 from 108 balls to give Melbourne the ascendancy, but when he fell with the score at 3-207, Geelong regained control.
“We saw in our innings how soft the ball got and how hard it was to score when the pace was taken off after 30 overs,” Cats coach Liam Buchanan said.
“With them needing seven an over, and both boys who were in (Harper and Blake Thomson) had run pretty hard and were both looking fatigued, I didn’t think it was going to be long before we got a wicket.
“And once we got Sammy Harper out I thought they’d get nowhere near us and that’s what happened.”
McDonald, who made only 282 runs at 20.14 last season and was overlooked for the finals, credited Buchanan for the first-round performance.
“For probably the last three years, Leo has put a lot of time and effort into me,” the opener said.
“It’s all about the process, not getting carried away, hit the right balls when they need to be hit, sticking to a process and hope it pays off, and it did in Round 1.
“Consistency is everything in cricket, as we all know, and averaging 20 is not good enough.
“It’s obviously a good start, hopefully I can go on.”
Buchanan revealed that wicketkeeper McDonald had spent hours in the nets, honing his craft in a bid to improve his consistency.
“He’s been working on becoming more of a batsman, rather than a slogger,” the coach said.
“We need him to get going more than he has in the past and that was a great stepping stone for his season.
“He has as much talent as anyone at the club and his ball striking is unbelievable.
“It was more about spending some time at the crease and realising his potential.
“He’s really done a lot of work this pre-season on picking the right ball and this is what we expect from him.”