CAPTAIN Nathan Jones says he’s adamant “the group has taken another step forward” following Melbourne’s 37-point win over Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.

Speaking to Dee TV, Jones said the Demons were “really disappointed” with their 37-point loss against St Kilda at the MCG last round and were determined to bounce back hard against the Pies.

“We were really inconsistent with our effort [last round] and we probably made the same amount of mistakes out there today (Saturday), but the boys’ consistently came back to the contest,” he said.

“Their willingness to tackle and put pressure on and crack-in – we still got the result – and in the end we won pretty convincingly. It was a credit to the team.

“We really grabbed hold of the group all week – the leaders and the emerging leaders. [We] led from the front, from the start of the week, along with the coaches facilitating that, and it was just a really positive week for the footy club and I’m really glad that we bounced back.”

Jones said Melbourne’s final term, when it booted four goals to none, will give the team “a lot of confidence and belief”.

“We’ve had some terrific performances this year, but probably haven’t got the momentum that’d we’d expect from those [wins]. This just hammers home a little bit of that belief,” he said.

“We reflected on a few things during week and we tried to push that mainly. We feel the difference between us taking the next step comes down to the mentality and the boys really bought into that this week.

“The challenge now is to consistently back that up. We’ve going to have our ups and downs, as you’d expect from an inconsistent, young and inexperienced team. But the more we play like we did today (Saturday) and continue to value the things that we really want to do and execute as a team – we’re going to become a pretty good side, pretty quickly.”

As for his set-shot goal, which put Melbourne up by 29 points at the 18-minute mark of the final term and effectively iced the match, Jones said he simply had to take some responsibility.

“I think when you get those opportunities, you’ve got to really make the most of them,” he said.

“The situation of the game – I started to think about my routine and forget about that. That’s what we’re paid to do and that’s why we practice so many hours a week.

“It’s always good when you can get it done.”