Essendon football boss issues McDonald-Tipungwuti update
Essendon GM of footy Josh Mahoney says the Bombers need to see a commitment from Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti to get back to AFL level if they are to award him a new contract beyond 2022.
McDonald-Tipungwuti, 28, hasn’t played a senior game for the club since Round 21 last year and took a leave of absence from the club in February.
The small forward returned to the fold earlier this year and has been working on getting his fitness back to AFL levels.
However, despite early plans to have McDonald-Tipungwuti back in the first half of the year, Mahoney revealed those had hit a snag.
“He’s making progress, but he was interrupted by a two-week break with COVID which probably pushed it back a little bit,” Mahoney said on Sportsday.
“He just wasn’t able to do the training that we need him to do, he’s making some progress but he’s still a bit away from the requirements to be able to perform at AFL level.
“We’ll keep supporting him in that and hopefully we get there.”
McDonald-Tipungwuti’s best return came last year, kicking 34 goals at an average of 1.7 per game to be amongst the elite small forwards of the competition.
However, just one year on and coming out of contract at the end of 2022, Mahoney suggested potentially serious conversations are on the table with the Bombers star to work out what is “the best thing for him to do”.
“At some stage, we will (make that decision on a new contract),” Mahoney stated.
“He is out of contract, one of a number of players, and we’ve got to work with ‘Walla’ (McDonald-Tipungwuti) on what is the best thing for him to do… as we said before, we’ll work hard with him to try and get him back to AFL level, he’s now missed a fair chunk of time, the back half of last year and all of this year.
“So he hasn’t played footy for a long period of time, we’ve got to know that he’s committed to getting back and if he is, then we’ll support him in doing that.”