AFL grand final 2024: Quinten Lynch backs former protegee Sydney’s Logan McDonald to fire on the big stage

If anyone knows how to recover from the disappointment of missing grand final selection and win a premiership, it’s former West Coast forward Quinten Lynch. And if anyone knows Sydney youngster Logan McDonald, it’s his former school footy coach Quinten Lynch. The man known as affectionately as “The Q-Stick” is backing his former protegee to have the mental fortitude to replicate his efforts. McDonald was the heartbreak story of the 2022 decider for the Swans, when he was dropped after a one-goal outing in the preliminary final with the club sticking with injured star Sam Reid. Fast forward to this September and McDonald has become a crucial part of John Longmire’s side, being one of nine Swans to play all 25 games this season and kicking 37 goals — the third most in the side. The young spearhead came into this week under an injury cloud though after being subbed out of the Swans’ preliminary final win over Port Adelaide with a left ankle injury, but was named in the unchanged side on Thursday. McDonald barely participated in the Swans’ final training session at the MCG on Friday, completing some light stretching, and then chatted with staff for the majority of the session before doing some touch work with assistant coach Amon Buchanan. He then had a handful of snaps at goal before the session ended and is set to take the field. Lynch knows the emotions McDonald would have experienced over the past two years. He played all 23 games for West Coast leading into the 2005 preliminary final but was dropped for Travis Gaspar who hadn’t played all year. He then watched from the sidelines as the Eagles lost to Sydney in a grand final for the ages. The next year Lynch would spearhead West Coast to their third premiership, kicking an equal-game high three goals to go down in the club’s folklore. Lynch, who coached McDonald at Aquinas College, said the young Swan was capable of doing something similar when he steps out on the MCG to face Brisbane. “I definitely think he’s got the mentality for it,” Lynch said. “He would have been extremely disappointed in 2022 but I would have no doubt that’d be spurring him on come this game. “He’d be looking to play the role for the team. That’s the type of person he is and I’ve got no doubt he’s up for that challenge and he’ll do it well.” Sydney teammate Will Hayward said he’d always thought McDonald would be declared fit to play. “I was always confident and he was really confident,” he said. “He just had to get through training which he did. He was fine. He’s 100 per cent ready to go. Probably for him there was a bit of a nervous wait but I think when he woke up a few days after the game and saw it was looking pretty good, he was good. “He’s super important. He’s a big connector for us. He’s a hard runner and a hard match-up. We’re super pumped that he got up.” The impact of tall forwards are often measured on the number of goals they kick but in a system like Sydney’s where there are a plethora of options in attack, McDonald’s role is diverse. Lynch said McDonald needed to focus on the fundamentals and everything would come from there. “I don’t know what his coaches are going to tell him. Obviously, goals are a bonus,” Lynch said. “His work-rate being that link-up player and making sure he doesn’t get out-marked is the one thing I’d say to him. “Doing the hard things like trying to lay some tackles because that bring you into the game and also keeps the team alive. “I’ve got no doubt he’d be working on that. With his work-rate and his mindset that’s the stuff that comes natural to him. And some goals on top of that will make it a good day for him.” McDonald arrived at Sydney a near-ready made forward, having booted 21 goals in nine games for Perth’s league side as a teenager to finish second in the Bernie Naylor Medal. Experts were stunned when North Melbourne overlooked him with pick No.3 in that year’s draft, only for Sydney to swoop on him with their next pick as they began planning for the post-Lance Franklin era. McDonald was the captain of Lynch’s Aquinas side as well and the former Eagle and Collingwood forward said while he was quiet his actions on the field did a lot of the talking. “He was probably not the most outspoken kid but his work-rate and willingness to compete was what made him stand out,” Lynch said. “And you can see that in his footy now. He does a lot of the hard things and works really hard. “Obviously being a tall it’s taken him a few more years to develop but he’s getting his opportunity now and he’s making every post a winner.”