When Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti was sweating it out in his first pre-season as an official AFL player, he didn’t have to look far for inspiration.

His fitness had seen him overlooked in previous drafts, but now he was training alongside some of the game’s best athletes.

“The first couple of weeks were pretty hard,” McDonald-Tipungwuti said.

“It was obviously summer time then so the running was pretty intense.

“I guess when you train with Jobe Watson, or Dyson Heppell, or [Brent] Stanton… you look up to the boys and that’s where you want to be.

“I try to push myself like those boys did and try to learn off how they train really well to perform week by week.”

McDonald-Tipungwuti’s time training alongside those three midfielders was cut short, but normal service will resume when the pre-season for 2017 gets underway.

And this time McDonald-Tipungwuti will have a full season under his belt and a freshly signed contract that will keep him at the Club until at least the end on 2019.

After being selected in last year’s Rookie Draft, he’s played 19 games and averaged 15 disposals at an efficiency rate of 78%.

“There is heaps of learning for me to progress in my career,” he said.

“You’re never too comfortable at AFL I guess but I’m learning and loving the experience of playing AFL footy.

“Doing it full-time is pretty hard, with the training and pre-season and coming in every day.

“That was pretty hard and a bit challenging but I’ve learnt from that experience and taken it with both hands and asked for feedback from the other boys.

“I’ll continue my running and focus on what I need to do to get it right.

“Obviously fitness was my main goal and I had to work on that during pre-season.

“Having the other boys push me through and learning from Patty Ambrose who just runs and runs… I just challenged myself.”

McDonald-Tipungwuti’s runs from defence, tackling and precision kicking have provided many highlights this season.

But for the man himself, the round two victory over Melbourne is the moment that stands out.

“It was special,” he said.

“To get my first win for the Club and playing well with the boys and celebrating a win.

“No one rated us to win this year so that one was pretty special to me and will stay with me for the rest of my life.

“I’ve really enjoyed and loved playing with the boys and it was good to get that win and I really enjoyed that moment.”