IT HAS taken quite some time, but Jarred Moore is clearly starting to feel at home in the eye of the AFL storm.

Moore, 22, starred for Sydney in Saturday’s thrilling 11-point win over Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, with 19 possessions and three goals, and a hand in creating several others.

But it wasn’t so much the weight of his numbers, as much as the class and effectiveness with which they were executed that marked Moore’s game.

His first goal was a fantastic first quarter effort, pinballing off three or four Port defenders before ending up alone in the goal square. His second was a smart roving goal, reading a Peter Everitt tap during the second term.

The third, though, was the best of all. A high pressure 45 metre shot on the run at full pace with a bounce to tie up the scores after the Power had hit the front late in the last quarter. It was the goal which announced Sydney would not be beaten.

It was a performance which had his coach, Paul Roos, singing Moore’s praises.

“I thought Jarred Moore’s effort today was just outstanding,” Roos said after the match. “I thought he was just phenomenal for a kid that hasn’t played a lot of footy; some of the things he did today were unbelievable.”

Moore himself felt more than just the pressure of kicking the crucial goal to snatch back the momentum for his team. He felt the pressure of not having done so in previous matches.

“I’m pretty confident that I can kick goals,” Moore told afl.com.au after the game.

“But I’ve had a couple of chances to seal a couple of games – against St Kilda in the first week, and even in the draw against the Kangaroos – and I was disappointed in not being able to kick those goals. So I really, really wanted to kick this one.”

Now in his fourth year at the Swans, Moore was in just his 18th match on Saturday, after debuting in 2005.

For someone touted as a potential number one draft pick after starring for Victoria in the under-18 carnival in 2004, it’s been a long road.

“He was always a very, very talented kid. I remember watching his tape at Under 18 level, Victoria versus South Australia, he was absolutely outstanding. I think Terry Wallace was commentating that day, and said he’d be the number one pick in the draft,” Roos said.

“But he didn’t run a great shuttle (at the Draft Camp), he didn’t run a great 3k time trial. That really slipped him down (the draft order) – because he didn’t have great aerobic running – and we took him at 31.

“We knew he had some deficiencies in his game in terms of his running. Last year he really struggled to get a game because he just couldn’t get across the ground.

“So he worked extremely hard with our fitness guys in the off-season and did a lot of running.

“Even at the moment he probably doesn’t have the engine to play midfeld, but he’s certainly become a very, very good small forward.”

Moore has played every match this season, following just two last year, and has averaged 19 touches and almost four tackles in his last four games – a great return for a small forward. But he’s not getting carried away just yet.

“A goal of mine at the start of the year was to cement a spot in the side, and hopefully I’ve done that,” Moore said. “But really I just want to contribute to the team every week and play my role, because that will eventually lead to more wins for us.

“It’s tough when you come over to meet Port Adelaide in front of their crowd.

“But we know that if we stick to our game plan and the way we want to play then we’re always a chance to turn it around and that’s what happened.”