The maturation of Liam Jones as a player and person is beginning to pay dividends on the field, as he continues to grow in confidence and ability, Western Bulldogs’ Senior Coach Brendan McCartney said.

After making progressive steps over the past 18 months, Jones is beginning to take ownership over his key forward role, kicking a personal best four goals on two occasions already this season.

“We’ve been confident for a long time about Liam coming along… externally people are now taking more notice but we have been seeing small steps for about 18 months,” McCartney said.

“He is materialising it well now.”

Surrounding Jones with two experienced heads in Assistant Coach Shannon Grant and Specialist Coach Cameron Mooney this pre-season has also helped the young forward begin to deliver on his potential.

“I think Shannon Grant has done a lot of good work with him as well, who was a great AFL forward and understands forward craft – Liam’s maturity as well,” he said.

“[He’s had a] big Summer, bit of confidence… growing into his body and growing into his person, I think that he’s managing the demands of AFL footy a lot better.”

The 22-year-old has already equalled his goal tally of nine from last year and is on track to overtake his career best 19 goal return from season 2011.

While his ability to hit the scoreboard has been an improvement on previous seasons, it is also his increased workrate and defensive efforts that have seen him make an impact at senior level.

“It’s been a big step but it’s round five, we need him to keep playing like that every week,” he said.

“He had two games where he got one goal and he was very effective for us round one, he didn’t have a great day in Adelaide – but not many of our forwards did.

“That’s also an evolutionary thing over time, he is still only 40 games into his career, that’s the expectation, he’s aware of it [and] that is what we coach him on – we’re confident.”

McCartney said the continued development of the Bulldogs’ inexperienced lineup as a whole would also assist in Jones’ improvement – providing him with increased support and better delivery into the forward line.

“Every forward lives and breathes off good supply and having good coverage on the ground below them so the ball stays in the area,” he said.