THE LAST time Adelaide midfielder Chayce Jones travelled home to Launceston for an AFL match, he was an emergency on the fringes of the 22 watching on as younger teammate Riley Thilthorpe made a stunning five-goal debut. 

Jones has added 37 games for a career tally of 61 since that round six clash against Hawthorn in 2021, but it's the last three that have seen him emerge as a different, more confident player. 

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The 23-year-old will now travel home to Tasmania for a clash with the Hawks on Sunday having grabbed his opportunity on a wing and produced a career-best 28-disposal game against Carlton last Thursday night. 

Jones said the key to his game clicking since being injected as the substitute in the round three Showdown was backing himself to make the right decisions and playing with more freedom as a result.    

"There's so many decisions you have to make in a game of footy, so I'm just backing myself in and knowing that if I make a mistake, it's something I can learn from afterwards," Jones told AFL.com.au. 

"When I was playing a bit of SANFL footy, one of our development coaches, Marco Bello, was great and there were a lot of times where he could see that I was a bit unsure or a bit hesitant. 

"During the week he would ask me what's going through my head, and we'd work through different scenarios. He told me to just go for it. 

"It's one of those things where it's taken a bit longer than I would have liked [to click], but everyone has their different rates of development and hopefully I can continue improving and make it three or four or five on the trot now."

Jones was recruited in the same draft as young stars Sam Walsh (Carlton), Bailey Smith (Western Bulldogs) and Port Adelaide pair Connor Rozee and Zak Butters, who all had a big impact early in their careers.  

Jones, who played eight games in his debut year and has played forward and back through his first four seasons, admitted some frustration at watching other young players establish themselves quicker.  

Now playing with presence and a clear sense of enjoyment on the wing, however, the athletic youngster said he had learned how to ride the highs and lows of an AFL career.  

"In my first year, you'd see guys like Sam Walsh and Bailey Smith smashing it out of the park, and that's where you want to be as well," Jones said. 

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"It's hard to see it at the time, but you've got to realise you're on your own path and you've got to be able to work with what you've got and develop your own skills. 

"The ebbs and flows in footy are crazy sometimes and they can be very quick highs and very quick lows. 

"You've just got to make sure you're trying to create some consistency with your footy, and hopefully that's what I can do."

As well as a new mindset to back his decision-making and play with freedom, Jones put a big emphasis on skill development over the pre-season and worked closely with fellow wingman Lachie Sholl on his kicking. 

His disposal efficiency, which has improved in each of his five seasons, sits at 72.4 per cent this year. 

"That's the biggest area of improvement for me. I think my athletic profile is reasonably good, so being able to keep improving that but also improve my skills was the focus," Jones said. 

"Lachie Sholl is one of the better ball-users at the club and I worked a lot with him during the pre-season, doing kicking drills after training pretty much every week. We still do that now. 

"He's one I really leaned on. He's a beautiful kick on both sides of his body, so working on that sort of stuff has been great for me."

Jones, who grew up in Longford, roughly 20 minutes out of Launceston, will have a large contingent of family and friends at Sunday's game, with the wingman also looking forward to taking in some local footy over the weekend. 

It will be a special occasion for the former Tasmania under-18s captain, whose homecoming has been timed perfectly with a period in which he is thriving as part of Crows team in finals contention. 

"The group at the club is amazing and we've really got to work and kept getting better," Jones said. 

"It's one that can be hard to see, but internally we knew it was coming and it's great now that we're actually getting some wins on the board."