IF COREY Jones ever needed to produce evidence to illustrate his growing maturity as an AFL footballer, he could simply point to the video of the dying moments of the Kangaroos' thrilling one-point win over Melbourne at the weekend.

Look closely and you can see Jones bellowing instructions to his teammates to find their men as Aaron Edwards goes back to take a set shot at goal with the Roos up by a point and with little more than 40 seconds remaining.

It is this type of discipline and awareness that created the turnover that resulted in Andrew Swallow's goal just seconds earlier and is part of the reason why the Roos have chalked up six successive victories.

Jones shrugs off the moment, saying he was one of many senior players making sure everyone was on their mettle in the closing stages of that tense final term.

"I suppose you can't have the video trained on every player on the ground, but I know that I was just one of a few blokes who were yelling out for everyone to find their man," Jones said at training this week.

"If Azza missed the goal, we wanted to make sure they had to kick to a contest because we didn't want them to keep possession of the ball and run it forward from what might have been a kick-in. I was just doing my job, really."

While keen to downplay his role in helping his young charges stay on their toes in last week's thrilling win, Jones will admit that he is beginning to feel an expectation to assume some of the leadership burden shouldered for so long by Adam Simpson, Brent Harvey, Glenn Archer and Shannon Grant.

He has been at the club for seven years now - managing 112 games since making his debut in 2001 - and says he can't help but be a better player for playing under and with so many great leaders.

"We've had some great leaders here over that time so I've had a lot of great people to learn off. I don't think you can go too far wrong by trying to put the lessons learned from them into your own approach to the game."

Even more than that, you get the impression Jones likes to think that his time at Arden St is helping him in ways far and above his initial aims of simply becoming a regular AFL footballer.Like many of his teammates he talks of the Shinboner Code, and while he is careful not divulge the contents of the creed the Roos have adopted over the past few seasons, he is happy to reveal that it has played a key part in helping the team on its way to a 6-3 record this year.

"We certainly embrace the Shinboner tag. We have a different perspective on it compared to the general public but that's something we know and we understand what it means to us.

"I won't go into it but we've spent a bit of time putting together that Shinboner Code - I think makes us a better football side but it also makes us better people as well."

Jones admits that the Roos will need every ounce of that famed “Shinboner Spirit” when it takes on league leaders West Coast at Subiaco on the weekend. But like so many of his mates, he is relishing the thought of the Roos pitting themselves against the benchmark of the competition.

"We just have to go over there and throw everything at them and have no regrets. They'll obviously be favourites so it'll be a really good test for us.

"We've had a few wins on the trot but they are the measuring stick so it's really exciting to see where we are at."