Bombers confident McDonald-Tipungwuti will return, planning on “different mix” forward line for 2022
Essendon general manager of football Josh Mahoney is confident fans haven’t seen the last of Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti after the livewire forward took an indefinite leave of absence over the weekend.
The Bombers announced on Saturday that McDonald-Tipungwuti, who has played 126 games for the Dons, would take leave from the club to deal with “personal struggles”.
He was dealing with a calf injury at the time and was still some time away from a return to full training, and it’s currently unknown how the break will affect his return to playing date.
Mahoney said the call for the 28-year-old to step back from the club was in his best interests.
“We think that players go through challenges at different stages through the year and particularly last few years has presented players with different challenges and there are different strategies and coping mechanisms,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“Sometimes the best thing to do is to take a break from the club and we think that’s the best option for ‘Walla’ and we look forward to him coming back and having a significant impact on our season.”
When asked about McDonald-Tipungwuti's future, Mahoney added there was no reason to think the small forward wouldn’t return to the club.
“Right now we’re really confident that this period of time away, he’s sorted a few things out personally,” Mahoney continued.
“We know that he’s really keen to get back to playing and really keen to get back to the club, he loves coming to the club, he loves playing for the Bombers.
“At this stage, we don’t see any need to be thinking that way.”
McDonald-Tipungwuti’s potential absence from part of the season complicates the forward half for the Bombers, an area of the ground that appears the weakest on paper for the club.
Cale Hooker kicked 33 goals last year before retiring, while McDonald-Tipungwuti kicked 34 majors.
Jake Stringer (41) was the only other name to kick over 30 goals for Essendon in 2021, and apart from him, the Bombers have a lack of big names up forward.
Mahoney admitted the club’s forward line is a “different mix” and acknowledged Hooker’s exit as a “big out” but said he was confident the club can kick big scores in 2022.
He also suggested Essendon could now look to free agency and the trade period to improve.
“You’re always looking at options to bring in to strengthen up your list,” Mahoney said.
“Harry Jones has only played a handful of games, Kaine Baldwin, who’s on our rookie list, who’s training really well at the moment, he’s a key position forward.
“So we’ve got a few younger guys that we’ve drafted, Josh Eyre as well, so there’s some young guys there.
“How quickly they can come on is probably the question, so yeah, we think we’ll look as the year goes on at our trade targets, but certainly we’ve gone to the draft the last couple of years, we think we’ve done quite well with our selections there.
“So we’re going to give those guys some games but (we're) always looking at bringing players in through the trade period.”
Essendon kicked 1953 points in 2021, the fourth most of any side for the year.
Listen to the full interview with Josh Mahoney below