MATT Jones says he hoped to play up to 10 matches in his first AFL season in 2013.

Instead, the classy midfielder burst on the AFL scene, playing all 22 matches and finishing fourth in Melbourne’s best and fairest.

“I had a goal to play between five and 10 games, so as soon as I got to that mark, I kept on changing my actual goals,” he told melbournefc.com.au.  

“To look back on the year and play 22 games – I’ve still got a heap of things I’ve got to fix in my game, but hopefully over the summer, I can fix them and come back bigger and better next year.”

Although Jones and his non-related teammate Nathan Jones were the only two Demons to play every match this year, he said it wasn’t without its hurdles. 

“I got a bit of foot pain midway through the pre-season and then it got worse and worse. But with the bye, it was really handy with something like that. That helped out a lot,” Jones said.

“Mentally, I got to the point, where it was about round 15 or 16, when I started to get tired. Meetings and training day in and day out [was tiring]. I wasn’t really sore physically, but mentally I was.

“I found that tough.”

Jones said he couldn’t put his finger on one reason for his career taking off as a 25-year-old and why he wasn’t drafted earlier.

“It’s a really good question. I think the reason why I was overlooked at the time is because I wasn’t playing well enough and I wasn’t playing a high enough standard of footy. I don’t think I was up to it mentally as well,” he said.

“To come in now and play every game was great.

“If you asked me how [it happened], I don’t really know. I just trained hard, but I’m not really sure. I just kept on training hard. I didn’t put too much pressure on myself and that helped as well.”

Jones, who was drafted at No.52 in the 2012 NAB AFL Draft, said he was set to return to his original club, South Croydon, in the Eastern Football League, before Melbourne finally gave him an opportunity, after several years of being overlooked in the draft.

“This time last year, I’d finished with the Box Hill Hawks and I thought I was a chance to be picked up, but I wasn’t sure,” he said.

“At that time, I thought I was going to go back and play EFL with my friends at the South Croydon Football Club. I hadn’t signed on, but that was the path I was thinking of going down.

“I still don’t know now whether I would’ve gone back to South Croydon or stayed at Box Hill – I’m still not too sure.”

Jones knows his second season is going to present its challenges, but he’s ready to tackle them.

“The second year is always harder than your first year,” he said.

“It’s going to be harder, but because I played a fair bit this year, I know what it’s like.

“In terms of expectations on myself, I haven’t really thought about it too much yet.”

In terms of how long he sees himself playing for, Jones said he was optimistic he had at least five years – and hopefully more – in the red and blue.

“It’s an interesting one, because when you’re in the system earlier, you might get burnt out quicker,” he said.

“Because I’ve come in at 25, there might be [an opportunity] to play on until I’m 31 or 32.

“I haven’t really thought about how long I’d like to be here, but as long as I can hopefully.”