Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, or ‘Walla’ as he is more commonly referred to around the Club, is making strong progress in his first full AFL pre-season.

Head Development Coach Matthew Egan said Walla’s natural skill is only getting stronger as he puts in the hard work on the track.

“He is obviously a VFL star from last year,” Egan said.

“He has played a lot off half-back last year in the VFL and showed he can play that position really easily.

“He has really nice control of the ball left foot or right foot and reads the game well and likes to run and carry with the ball which is really important from the back half.”

Tipungwuti played in 14 games for the Essendon VFL team during the 2015 season, averaging 17 disposals and four tackles a game.

Egan said Tipungwuti will continue to play in his usual position off the half-back line, despite many of the Coaches keen to get him playing in different areas of the ground.

“We tried him early days as a small forward just to see how’d he go as a goal sneak,” Egan said.

“Obviously since he can use both sides really well, we thought  it would be a good attribution to the forward line.

“But at this stage we’ve pushed him down back again just to get his confidence up and it’s obviously where he has played a lot of his footy.”

Walla’s defensive game will undoubtedly improve under the watchful eye of both Egan (who he will work closely with at the VFL level) and new defensive line coach Mark Harvey.

“The last few practice games he’s kicked a goal off the half-back so Harvs has worked really hard on those players that rebound hard,” Egan said.

“He’s one that can generate some scores from the back half for us.

“He’s going really well. He is really hungry to learn – last year he was exactly the same he’s on track for a pretty good year.”