CYRIL Rioli had just 10 disposals in Hawthorn’s 2008 Grand Final win, but his influence was immense.

He kicked two goals, yet his pressure was critical in the brown and gold’s win over Geelong.

Although the circumstances were vastly different, Jayden Hunt’s 14-disposal game against the Adelaide Crows at the MCG on Sunday could be likened to Rioli’s, in the fact that his impact on the game was profound.

Hunt’s run-and-carry, chasing and one-percenters were telling.

And they weren’t lost on the coach either.

“It’s extraordinary. You look at the stats and he only got 14 possessions, but it was as good a 14-possession game as I’ve ever seen,” Paul Roos said.

“He was just exceptional in the contest and exceptional in getting across the ground and helping his teammates and creating scoring opportunities and he kicked a goal himself.

“He’s been building really nicely over the course of the year and he’s a good learner and he listens really well. He’s starting to become a really competent AFL player.”

The performance of Hunt, who played his 11^th AFL game against the Crows and kicked his first goal, was another exciting sign in an emerging side.

For the record, Melbourne fielded a side with an average age of 23 years and 355 days. The Crows were 25 years and 81 days.

Adelaide’s team also had 603 more games than Melbourne: 2125 to 1522.

The red and blue also had 17 players that hadn’t played 100 games. Adelaide had nine players who had passed the three figures.

Melbourne also had 10 players who had yet to play 50 games, with Max Gawn (53), Matt Jones (56), Jack Viney (62) and Dom Tyson (63) recently reaching the half-century mark.

Although Melbourne fell short to Adelaide by 22 points, it was almost indicative of where the two sides are at.

The game was in the balance for much of it, until Adelaide managed to creep away in the final term.

In assessing the match, Roos said it played out how you’d expect from a neutral perspective.

“You look at our team and objectively we’re young – that’s just a fact and there is not much you can do about that,” he said.

“You’d love to have another 30 odd games into the players, but I think we’re showing improvement.

“But there is definite frustration we can’t do it for longer.”

One player on the border of reaching 50 games – Dean Kent – was highlighted by Roos as the type of player the club is grooming for the future. And a player who has benefitted greatly from the club’s beefed up development area, with the likes of Brendan McCartney.

“That’s indicative of the work the assistant coaches are putting in.”

“We’re seeing individuals improve, with the amount of vision they’re watching with our assistants and that they’re putting in with the young players. If you go and watch Casey play now, you can see a distinctive game style with the way we want to play, so that all contributes to it.

“Guys like Kenty are improving and becoming more consistent and we need them to, to beat those teams [such as Adelaide]. You can see when Kenty’s at his best, he’s really, really good. When he gets tired and out of the game, it’s similar to some of our other players, but his best has been very good this year.”

Players such as Hunt, Kent et al. make-up an important nucleus for Melbourne and although the points didn’t go the red and blue’s way on the weekend, there was plenty to like about it.