THE QUALIFYING final was a long time coming for Logan McDonald.

A personal-best six goals, the highest-rated game of his career, and all of it in a resounding victory against the reigning back-to-back premier Brisbane that ensured an undermanned Sydney side would now host a preliminary final this weekend.

"It probably was [my best ever game]," McDonald tells AFL.com.au.

"Factoring in the stage, then yeah probably."

It had felt like a long time coming because, for McDonald, there had been periods across the last 18 months when he wasn't sure when he'd be back. And that's on a footy field, let alone in September.

Having been part of the Sydney side that copped a Grand Final belting at the hands of Brisbane in 2024, its second Grand Final letdown in three seasons, McDonald was understandably keen to atone last season. And then his body failed him.

What started as a severe syndesmosis injury turned into a 12-month nightmare for the young key forward. An adverse reaction to the initial surgery turned into in a rare condition called heterotopic ossification, with a spiral bone developing in between his tibia and fibula that became the joint between the two.

It led to stress fractures, countless visits to specialists and surgeons, and ultimately sidelined McDonald for an entire season. The fact that it happened right when the youngster was starting to find his feet at AFL level, having kicked 32 and then 37 goals in his third and fourth years respectively, added to the frustration.

"It was pretty shattering," McDonald says.

"There were no real answers, that was the toughest thing about it. It was a unique injury and it kept producing setbacks. There were no black or white answers and it made it really hard to get myself up to keep pushing.

"It was tough as well, considering it was off the back of the Grand Final. We'd got so close to reaching the goal of everyone that plays footy in winning a premiership, then all of a sudden I was out for a whole year.

"It was really hard, but I always knew I had confidence in the people around me and the club to get back to playing some consistent footy. This year, I didn't start as well as I would have liked. I probably put a bit too much pressure on myself. But [senior coach] Dean Cox and [forwards coach] Jeremy Laidler and the club were good with me in being patient with me and just trusting me.

"They didn't put any pressure on me, or rush me, to get back as quickly as I could. They gave me time and I think it's started to click over the last couple of months and I'm starting to contribute pretty consistently. I'm very grateful for them."

The solution to his injury woes was one final surgery, where they removed the bone growing between McDonald's tibia and fibula. It was, in his words, a "shocking" operation. He's kept a video of the procedure saved on his phone as a keepsake, but remains grateful it ultimately healed his troubled ankle.

"It was just a lot of chiselling and drilling," McDonald says.

"They had to be pretty careful, because the bone was all twisted."

McDonald did everything required of him across the 2025-26 summer to ensure he would play from Opening Round this season, settling in nicely and becoming a key part of the team's new-look forward line alongside star recruit Charlie Curnow and a combination of either Joel Amartey or Hayden McLean.

The formula has worked well for McDonald, who now has a career-high 48 goals and has become one of the League's most dangerous attacking players since re-finding confidence in both his form and his fitness through the year.

However, surprisingly, it wasn't a stint in the forward line that helped McDonald kickstart his campaign. Rather, it was a comeback victory over St Kilda where injuries and rotation issues forced him higher up the ground onto a wing that helped the talented 24-year-old settle back into a rhythm.

In that round 13 encounter, where the Swans fought from 33 points down to clear the Saints by just two points, McDonald finished with 21 disposals, 11 marks, a goal, eight score involvements and five intercepts on the wing to inspire the comeback.

It catapulted a run of 15 consecutive games with a goal, 12 of those featuring multiples, and culminated in his six-goal qualifying final performance against Brisbane. In fact, had the season started then, McDonald would be top five in the Coleman Medal count alongside Curnow, Logan Morris, Jye Amiss and Josh Treacy.

"You always want to be known as a good finals player, so to get on the end of a few in a final wasn't too bad," McDonald says. "Plus, it was so good playing next to Charlie Curnow and Tom Papley. They make my job a lot easier.

"It's always nice to kick goals. It's what you get paid to do as forwards. But, internally, I know what 'Coxy' and my teammates value from me. That's just to compete through my workrate. Whether I kick goals from doing that or not, it doesn't matter. But it is nice to get that scoreboard recognition.

"I just want to keep playing my role consistently. Obviously, having the game taken away from me for 12 months has really shown me how much I love this game and how much I missed it. I just love being out there and the team is in a great spot at the moment."

Most of McDonald's 48 goals this year have been followed by a cheeky celebration alongside teammate and close friend Errol Gulden. Unbeknown to most, the two have been mimicking a Spiderman pose every time they put one through in a nod to their favourite baseballers at the New York Mets.

McDonald and Gulden's post-season sporting ventures to take in European football have become a tradition across recent years – McDonald is a fan of Premier League side Everton, while Gulden supports its far more successful Merseyside rivals Liverpool – but this year, they're changing things up.

Rather than go to Europe, they'll travel together to the United States this time around. Having both found themselves falling in love with Major League Baseball recently, they're planning to follow the playoffs throughout October. That, in turn, has led to the new goal celebrations as well.

"We've actually both got into the baseball this year," McDonald laughs.

"We're going to head over to the United States, head to the baseball playoffs and follow that around. I don't know how we got into baseball, we both just love it. After goals, we've been doing the Spiderman celebration at each other. Errol goes for the New York Mets and they do that whenever they get a base hit. We're just idiots."

There's plenty left to accomplish on Australian shores before then, though. Starting with Friday night's preliminary final against minor premier Fremantle, where victory will ensure passage through to a third Grand Final in five years.

The Swans are, of course, without the suspended Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, James Jordon and Riley Bice, while captain Callum Mills has also been sidelined with a sickening ACL injury sustained in their qualifying final win.

But, as has been the case across the last month, there will be no backs-to-the-wall mentality at Sydney. Despite being written off by much of the wider football public given the huge list of absentees, the Swans aren't using any external noise to fuel the motivation.

"Not really," McDonald says.

"We just kept controlling what we could control as coaches and players. That was our commitment to each other through training and on the field and on game day. It made it a lot easier for us. We just narrowed our focus to our role.

"Our system isn't built around any individual players, it's all about roles and positions. We're super proud of the young boys who have come in and filled their role, doing nothing more and nothing less. You're really seeing them flourish on the biggest stages, so I'm excited for the next few weeks of what that could potentially look like for us."

A resounding and emotional win over North Melbourne in round 24 built further belief in that system, but the significance of the side's qualifying final win against Brisbane catapulted it to another level. Can it now provide the springboard to the most unlikely of premierships?

"It's probably the No.1 thing we've spoken about during this period," McDonald says.

"It's our self-belief internally, in terms of what we can do. We've got so much belief in our game plan, system and all the work we've done over the last 12 months to get ourselves in this position.

"It's just been stressed throughout the club that no one has to do anything more than their role. You don't have to feel like you have to go and win the game yourself, you just have to play your role. Nothing more, nothing less. We've kept narrowing our focus to that.

"When you come to the bench for a rest and you're watching it and the Sydney crowd is buying into that massively as well, you're just in awe of what's happening. The way we're playing, the pressure and intensity around the ball, it's really exciting to watch. It's not just the handball chains through the corridor that we've probably been known for anymore.

"I think that's going to be the backbone of us for the rest of the finals series."