The 36-year-old, who played 94 games for Melbourne and 63 games at Carlton in an 11- season AFL career, explained that playing a season at a country football club had been a long-time goal.
After much research and the assistance of Goulburn Valley football guru Troy Auld he settled on Tongala.
COVID-19 frustrated his initial attempts in 2020-21, when he had a brief and severely interrupted stint in the Goulburn Valley League with Shepparton United, but he is determined that 2022 will be different.
McLean’s AFL career spanned six seasons with Melbourne before he arrived at Carlton in 2009. Sporadic senior appearances ended in him spending most of the 2011 season with the Blues VFL affiliate Northern Bullants, where he won the team’s best and fairest award that season.
McLean was delisted in 2014 and returned to his junior club, Aberfeldie, for the 2015 season.
McLean said it was towards the end of last year that Auld made contact with him — about the possibility of him connecting with a club in the Goulburn Valley.
“He asked if I had any interest in playing in country Victoria,” McLean said.
"Tongala called me and I liked what they had to say. I liked where they were as a club.
“They told me it was a great little country town and I wanted to experience something like that.”
McLean said with the end much much closer than the beginning, he took the opportunity to sign with the Murray League Blues.
“I was convinced at the end of 2019 to play at United, where I knew football manager Matt Chilcott,” he said.
“I also knew Shane Neaves, who was rookie-listed at Melbourne.”
McLean said after the United experience went pear shaped towards the end of 2021 he thought the country experience was over.
“I didn’t know anyone at Tongala, I knew of Nick Jamieson (reigning Tongala best and fairest and former VFL star),” he said.
“I’d been told how good the team was in that competition, so I had a fair idea they were the team to beat.”
McLean said Tongala was unique in the fact the team could change by between eight and 10 players on a weekly basis (due to the successful Northern Territory experiment of the past three seasons).
“I haven’t experienced anything like that. Nearly half the team changes in one week, which was quite interesting” he said.
"I’ve been amazed how the players treat it as more of a club than a team.
"The players just love their footy club, regardless of whether they play in the seconds or the firsts.
“I’ve enjoyed myself a lot more than what I expected. I feel pretty good mates with the players already, which is probably why I am enjoying it a lot more.”
McLean said his goal to experience “a really tight-knit country footy club” was well on the way to being realised
“It’s one thing I’ve always wanted to experience. I played a one-off match at Maryborough and I also played at a small club near Inverloch,” he said.
McLean, wife Steph and 15-month-old daughter Bonnie have been making the most of the country football experiment — weekends away part of the process.
His wife is expecting the couple’s second child in July, which hasn’t allowed her to attend a Tongala game in the early stages of the season.
“We were planning to come up quite a bit, but Steph is getting to the point where she doesn’t feel like travelling,” McLean said.
“We stayed at Deep Creek for the Barooga game and then last week we stayed in Longwood for the weekend.
“Steph really wants to come along to a game, so it will be something we do later in the year.”
McLean said hamstring tightness suffered late in the game against Nathalia last weekend was more back-related than anything else.
"I have never been quick enough to ever do a hammy, a lot is to do with my back,“ he said.
“Spending a lot of time in the car, getting up and back, is not conducive to back health.
“I’ll go and see my guru this week.”
After finishing with Carlton the on-baller played for two years at his junior club Aberfeldie, in 2015-16, winning the premiership in 2015 and losing the following year in the grand final.
"My dad coached them and uncle played in a grand final win for Aberfeldie. I got to wear his number,“ McLean said.
“It was pretty similar to the Tongala story, because the flag in 2015 was their first in 40 years (Tongala’s last premiership was in the Goulburn Valley League in 1983).
“I am already counting down the days to the reunion in three years.”
McLean said, in 2017, he was uncertain if he wanted to continue.
He eventually played with Doncaster East in the Eastern Football League, where a friend was coaching.
“We lost the grand final in the first year and then went back to back in 2018-19,” McLean said.
“They had a really good business network connected to the club, so it was great way to do business.
“It certainly wasn’t full-time football anymore,” he said.
McLean works for start-up company Enosis Therapeutics, which uses psychedelics, psychotherapy and virtual reality to help patients with a range of mental health issues.
He has been public with his own mental health issues, which he said is what led him to work in the field.
“Enosis works with people suffering from PTSD, depression and anxiety,” McLean said.
“We are using technology to improve the therapeutical outcome for patients.”
McLean said he read his first book on the subject three years ago and was fascinated.
“Mental health is a bit of an obsession with me,” he said.
“The traditional forms of treating people who have anxiety and depression is not working.
“I’ve been quite open and public in recent times about. Now I am happy and healthy it is about giving back.”
McLean will attend the Tongala Football Club ball in a week or so to further enhance his own country football club experience.
