NATHAN Jones says Melbourne’s 41-point win over the Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night was one of the proudest he’s been involved in and was “a long time coming”.

The co-captain said it was a victory the team could draw on in the future, and it also set the standard for how the team wanted to perform weekly.

“If we can perform at that level, we’re going to give ourselves a shot every week,” he said.

“We definitely believe our best is good enough, but that consistency and intensity, and being able to apply our game style for 120 minutes of the game has been a little bit up and down. We’ve seen that with some of the results we’ve had this year.

“We’re a group that’s still trying to get better and we’re very clear with where we’re at in our journey and I think last night was a positive step forward for us.”

Jones said the opportunity to play on the road and at a venue the team enjoyed was crucial in the win.

“It was a terrific performance by our group. It was an opportunity to get away after a disappointing loss last week and seven rounds into the season. I thought it was a huge chance for us to get together and really galvanise the group,” he said.

“We took that opportunity – it was a big challenge up against Adelaide, who are on the top of the table. We really enjoy playing over there and we actually love the ground and that hostile environment really drove the boys to perform well.

“It was a finals-type atmosphere and I felt that we delivered with some of the best footy we’ve played this year.”

The triple best-and-fairest winner praised the performance of youngster Christian Petracca, who finished with 24 disposals and a goal.

“Christian’s form has been terrific all year. He’s shown us that he’s got a super amount of talent, particularly down forward,” Jones said.

Jones said another young-gun, Clayton Oliver, didn’t mean to kick his remarkable banana goal against the Crows.

But he told Oliver to “claim it”.

“It was quite special really – it was one of those ones that comes off,” he said.

“It was awesome.”

Jones said dashing half-back Jayden Hunt was OK after copping a concussion during the win.

“He’s all right. It was a significant concussion as we saw and he’ll go through the whole process this week from a medical point-of-view,” he said.

“Hopefully he gets the opportunity to come up, but we won’t be taking any risks with him.”