VICE captain Nathan Jones is adamant his side has made genuine progress since Melbourne’s first half against West Coast Eagles in round three.

Speaking after Melbourne’s 61 point loss to Carlton at the MCG on Sunday, Jones said his team had come a long way since being belted by a combined margin of 227 points after its opening two matches of the season.

“I think the first half of the West Coast game was the first little sign that we might’ve seen. From then, we’ve really built on that,” he said.

“The focus, after being smashed in the first two rounds, was to stick together, and that’s one real focus that we’ve had as an entire footy club.

“I think the boys have really shown some resilience and have been able to continually build on their effort over the last few weeks. Although we haven’t got any results, I think we are taking some positives from that.

“But, as Neeldy (Mark Neeld) mentioned, there’s so many areas we need to improve. The effort’s great, but we’ve got to transfer that into scores.”