TOM McDonald says becoming an official leader of the club is a key goal in his development.

The key defender said it was a subject spoken about at his post-season exit interview.

“We just had a talk about this in my exit interview with the coaches,” he told Dee TV.

“A big part of my next step is to be in the leadership group and they think I’ve got a lot of traits that could help the leadership group but there’s other areas that I need to improve on to be able to be voted in by the players and be accepted by the coaches.

“If I keep showing those things during pre-season, there’s no reason why I can’t get myself into the leadership group but I’ve got to do those things first.”

McDonald said his behaviours were among his key traits as a developing leader.

“I think I set a good standard in terms of how I conduct myself with my training standards and my professionalism,” he said.

“Professionalism is a word that gets used a lot but I think I’m a driven person and hopefully that sets the example as well.

“I’m not an overly loud person who gets everyone up and excited at the start of the game by yelling and screaming but hopefully I try to set a standard with what I do; that was part of the challenge from the coaches, to bring more guys along with me.

“A focus for me in pre-season is going to be helping everyone else along and not just always pushing myself.”

The 60-gamer said coach Paul Roos had been “very good” for his development.

“You do a lot of your actual work with your line coaches and development coaches, but we have a very good relationship, me and Roosy in terms of football coaching,” he said.

McDonald, who was selected at No.53 in the 2010 NAB AFL Draft, said despite his strong personal goals – 2015 was all about one thing: aiming for September.

“I want to play finals. That would be the goal for me and the team. I just really want to see that level of play that we had in the middle of the year without the drop-offs that we had later on. I want to see a lot more consistent, overall effort through the whole season,” he said.

“[I] absolutely [believe we can play finals]. I’ve seen how well we can play in patches and in games. We couldn’t have beaten Adelaide in Adelaide or couldn’t have come back from 33 points against Essendon and won if there wasn’t that level of ability and desire in the group. There has to be something there to do that.

“We haven’t just pulled these blokes off the street and they’ve got lucky.”