Nathan Jones hails Melbourne young gun Christian Salem

MELBOURNE captain Nathan Jones has hailed the improvement of Christian Salem.

BALLARAT, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 14: Nathan Jones of the Demons is tackled by Jake Stringer of the Bulldogs during the NAB Challenge AFL match between the Western Bulldogs and the Melbourne Demons at Eureka Stadium on March 14, 2015 in Ballarat, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

MELBOURNE captain Nathan Jones has hailed the improvement of Christian Salem, declaring the teenager integral to the Demons’ new attacking philosophy.

The Dees stunned onlookers in Saturday’s win over the Western Bulldogs, replacing last year’s stop-start style with swift, attacking ball movement in a dominant first half.

And second-year midfielder Salem was at the heart of it, gathering 24 possessions, nine marks and six tackles in a new counterpunch role off half-back.

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“With how we want to move the footy he’s a real key for us down there and he’s shown the ability to run both ways which ‘Roosy’ (coach Paul Roos) really values,” Jones said.

“The new role down back, we really see him as a classy player, he’s pretty tough and hard at it and obviously he uses the ball really well. He’s been one of the most impressive over the last two or three months and he’s had a really strong pre-season.”

With the No. 9 draft pick shifted to an orchestrating role, dashing new recruit Heritier Lumumba lighting up a wing and former Blue Jeff Garlett’s speed causing havoc close to goal, Melbourne appears to have added some glitter to its defensive grunt.

All signs point to a more offensively aggressive outfit in 2015 after last year’s conservative approach caused some frustration with fans.

Christian Salem kicks during the NAB Challenge match against the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Getty

“Last year you saw we were able to keep teams to scores we could potentially beat, but we couldn’t kick a winning one ourselves, so we’ve worked really hard on that,” Jones said.

“I think we put a lot of effort into our offence over the summer and Roosy initially came in and put a strong focus on defence, which is probably the cornerstone of our game. We had to work on attacking teams and being able to kick winning scores.

“Last year we were really stagnant, tended to go sideways and backwards and I think what we’ve really worked on is some real system and a bit of a pattern.

“Teams like Geelong and Hawthorn, they’ve got the ability to go really fast, but to also be really composed and control the ball and that’s something we’re working on.””

Melbourne’s last pre-season game comes against Essendon on Friday night. Jones acknowledged the difficulty of facing the drastically weakened Bombers, but said the Demons needed to put that aside.

“I really feel for the players at Essendon, but at the same time it’s the card we’ve been dealt. The challenge for our group is not to see it that way, we’ve just got to go out and play the way we want to play,” he said.

The match-up means coming face-to-face with former Melbourne players James Magner and Mitch Clisby, with Jones admitting he’d already been in touch with Magner.

“He’s one of my best mates. I messaged him the other night ... all I said to him was, ‘Just don’t hurt me before Round 1’.”

Originally published as Nathan Jones hails Melbourne young gun Christian Salem