SYDNEY Swans midfielder Kieren Jack is looking to develop his leadership skills in the mould of veteran Jude Bolton as the youngster continues to shine in the Swans' engine room.
Jack had another tremendous game in Saturday night's thrilling 13-point win over West Coast at Patersons Stadium collecting a team-high 23 touches along with 12 tackles.
He did that alongside Bolton, who had an AFL record 19 tackles, and now the 23-year-old wants to begin leading the way himself for the Swans' youngsters coming through.
"I'm in my sixth season and hopefully now I can steer the youngsters along like Dan Hannebery and Lewis Jetta in the right direction because when the older players do move on it's going to up to myself, Joey Kennedy and Jarrad McVeigh to do that," Jack said.
"He (Bolton) is just outstanding. For a bloke of his age to still be improving as a player is just fantastic. He sets a great example to not only me, but the other young midfielders coming through. He's just a traditional, hard-nosed inside midfielder and is someone I've always looked up to."
Saturday night's clash was yet another customary tight and tense battle between the Swans and West Coast, and Jack was delighted to come out on top again while reigniting hostilities with Eagles midfielder Daniel Kerr.
Jack had the better of the battle, restricting Kerr to just 13 possessions.
"I don’t know what it is, it just seems that every time we play them it's a really close game. The boys dug really deep in that last quarter and to be a couple of goals down at Subiaco with the crowd behind West Coast, but come through in the end was a really great result for us," Jack said.
"Daniel is a fantastic player and we certainly didn’t want him creating havoc around the stoppages. He is probably a good match-up for me because I can take him inside and outside, so it was good to get back to being a two-way midfielder where I can defend first and look to attack.
Having come home strongly to win two thrillers in as many weeks following the opening round draw with Melbourne, Jack and his Swans teammates have tremendous self belief of prevailing in close battles and he's now looking forward to facing Geelong at the SCG on Saturday night.
"We are really starting to believe we can win from any position. Last week against Essendon was another great example of it and so was this game," Jack said.
"The boys are taking an enormous amount of confidence that no matter what stage of the game it is everyone digs in whether you're having a good or poor game because you can still make a difference in the end.
"I'm yet to play Geelong at the SCG so it will be a fantastic opportunity for this group again to test themselves to see where we are at against a quality opponent. It's all about contested ball for us and making tackles that stick."
