At a glance:

  • Young Saint Molly McDonald shares an astonishing similarity with St Kilda legend Robert Harvey.
  • The two are graduates of Seaford Tigers Football Club and both have the club's best-and-fairest awards named in their honour.
  • The Molly McDonald Medal was struck after she became the first player from the club to be drafted into the AFLW.

Comparing arguably St Kilda’s greatest ever player in Robert Harvey with a 19-year-old who has just six senior games to her name may seem lopsided, to say the least.

But while Molly McDonald is only just beginning to make her mark at the top level, she already shares a special accolade with the St Kilda legend.

Both are graduates of the Seaford Junior Football Club, and incredibly, the club’s girls’ and boys’ best-and-fairest awards are respectively named in their honour.

The recently minted Molly McDonald Medal is the Tigers’ highest individual honour for the U18 girls, mirroring the boys’ equivalent, the Robert Harvey Medal.

The accolade was rebranded in the young Saint's name in 2019 shortly after the bayside local became first player in Seaford’s history to be signed to the AFLW.

“It’s sort of something I don’t think about every day, but it’s probably something I should obviously think about more,” a humble McDonald told saints.com.au.

“When they first said it, I didn't really know how to feel because it was something so special. I still don’t, really.”

Molly McDonald with the Seaford Tigers U18 best-and-fairest medal in 2017.

McDonald played four seasons at Seaford after a promising 10-year basketball career, winning two best-and-fairests in the U18 competition (2016, 2017), before commitments to representative side, Dandenong Stingrays, limited her time with the Tigers in her final two years.

St Kilda’s inaugural AFLW Season was just her fifth with the Sherrin.

While the number of McDonald’s on-field accolades dwarf those garnered in Harvey’s record-breaking 21-season career, the fact she’s been able to match one of the St Kilda great’s accomplishments at her age shapes as an exciting prospect for the years ahead.

Robert Harvey played a record 383 games for St Kilda across 21 seasons.

“It’s sort of weird to think of it like that, and I definitely didn’t think of that at the time the comparison between myself and Robert Harvey,” McDonald said.

“One of my family members brought it up one day and I was just like, ‘wow’.

“It’s cool to have a medal named after you, and then a legend of the game has the boys’ medal named after him, so I feel pretty honoured to have it.”

  Robert Harvey Molly McDonald
Games for St Kilda 383 6*
Recruited from Seaford Tigers Seaford Tigers
Age at senior debut 16 18
Best-and-fairests named in their honour 1 1