NATHAN Jones says the second half of the season presents an opportunity to “narrow the gap” between Melbourne and the competition’s top sides.
After starting the season with six wins and seven losses, Jones said he believes the club is on the right track at the midway point of the year.
“I think we’ve definitely shown improvement. There’s been a lot of hard work that has gone into it and we are starting to see some consistency in our performances,” he said.
“There’s a really distinct style of footy that we’re trying to play and a real brand of footy that we’re trying to create.
“We’re still two-and-a-bit years into our journey and there’s still a way to go for us – that’s been proven when we play the best sides.”
Jones said that games against top teams like North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Sydney had been valuable learning experiences for the young group.
“My personal view is that we’ve lost some games which we should have won but I feel like we’ve come a significant way and there’s still a way to go.
“Mainly those games where we’re competing against the best teams; I have no doubt in my mind that we’re as good but there are a lot of things that go into it for us to compete: mentality, experience, preparation and all of those types of things.
“We’re still finding our feet; we’re a pretty young and inexperienced team so it’s [about] keeping the standards high and the expectations high with the understanding that there’s going to be some ebb and flow which [can be] tough to deal with when you’re trying to compete.”
Jones said that learning how to regroup and compete after a loss had been an important area of focus this season.
“It [losing] is not something that we’ve accepted at all – we’ve addressed it every week on its merit and reviewed each game strongly.
“To the team’s credit, we’ve generally bounced back pretty well after a loss or poor performance.
“We’ve addressed our mid-season review and looked at a few things and hopefully we can continue to rise up as the season goes on.”
Looking ahead to the final nine games of the year, Jones said he was excited to build on the first half of the season.
“I’m really bullish about where the group is at and where it can potentially get to.
“Some of the foundations we’ve laid over the last couple of years are starting to become pretty consistent and the players have really stepped up both individually and collectively as a team.
“That’s a reason why we’ve been a lot more competitive and won a fair few more games and it’s about reproducing that over and over again for us to become a great side.”
