THE form of ruckman Max Gawn hasn’t been a surprise to skipper Nathan Jones, who says it was “always just a matter of time” before he started to shine as one of the best ruckmen in the game.

Jones said Gawn’s injuries had made it difficult for him early in his career, but he was adamant the big man could continue his outstanding form.

“[He just needed to] find the confidence and belief, and build his body up to be able to maintain that at AFL level,” he said.

“He had some breakout performances last year and he’s carried that form through the pre-season and then into this season.

“When you’ve got a dominant big man on the field … it makes for a very difficult match-up and a real advantage for us.”

Jones said Gawn’s duel against North Melbourne ruckman Todd Goldstein last Sunday at Blundstone Arena was outstanding.  

“It was one of the key match ups (Gawn and Goldstein). I love his (Gawn’s) confidence to put himself out there and declare that he wants to be one of the best ruckmen in the competition. He’s working as hard as he can to reach that goal. He showed his true ability on the weekend,” he said.  

“‘Goldy’ got him early, but again reflective of the team, his (Gawn) ability to fight back and get himself on an even playing field with the best ruckman in the competition, showed how far he’s come and the potential that he’s got.”

Reflecting on the five-point loss to the Kangaroos last round, Jones said he was initially disappointed with the result – after Melbourne trailed by 42 points in the first quarter – but he added it was a “terrific response” to fight back from a seven-goal deficit.  

“We probably played at a level we haven’t found ourselves playing at – against a really strong opposition that’s played off to get into the grand final for the last couple of years, so we really respect North Melbourne,” he said.

“We played accordingly [against them] and unfortunately we couldn’t get the result, but there were some real positives – in terms of how much we turned around our form from the previous week. We’re looking to build on that and we’ve got that opportunity on Sunday this week against another quality team.

“Hopefully we can bring that same intensity and effort, and tinker with a few things that probably let us down and didn’t get us over the line last week, and get the four points this week.”

Jones said fighting back had become a real theme for the team so far this year.

“If you include all of the NAB Challenge games and round one against GWS, [we] came from behind. Even playing as poor as we did against Essendon, to find a way to get back out in front, I think it shows there’s some real character and resilience in our group,” he said.

“We really believe in the way we’re playing – it’s just getting some real consistency with that. People probably underestimate how strong that breeze was in that first half against North [in Hobart].

“We felt like … we were right in the game, if not leading some of those key statistics, so we continued to believe. Footy is a real game of momentum, particularly with the conditions on the weekend, so we were lucky to take advantage of that. It turned into a pretty terrific game, but unfortunately we were on the losing side, which is disappointing for us.”

Overall, Jones said his team had taken plenty away from its first three rounds.  

“After the GWS game, we really let ourselves down the following week against Essendon, [so] we reviewed really hard, got back on the track and … got a bit of belief back with our training,” he said.

“We got two quality sessions in, with a longer break between the game, and we’ve had the same set-up again this week, so we’re looking to maintain some good form in training.

“We’ve reviewed the game [against North Melbourne] really strongly. We really honed in on the individual [players] – making sure they prepare themselves as best they can – which Roosy (Paul Roos) reflected on in his post-match [media conference] after the Essendon game. That’s what we did last week and we’re looking to try and maintain that again.”