Key forward Archie May believes the signs of growth within the playing group are becoming increasingly evident, following the side’s spirited showing against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday night.

Despite a slow start that saw the team trail early, the response after halftime showcased a growing connection, resilience and belief that May says has been building over recent weeks.

Finishing with two goals, the young forward was a strong presence inside 50, benefitting from improved ball movement and a clearer sense of cohesion among the forward line.

May is optimistic about what lies ahead if the side can sustain its best football across four quarters.

May on… Bulldogs matchup

Obviously, the initial feeling was a bit of disappointment.

We never want to go out there with the intention of not winning, but it was nice to walk away knowing that our best footy holds up.

If we can do that over four quarters, it's exciting to see what is to come.

(The halftime discussion was) just around our ball movement, we wanted to control the ball a bit more, have a bit more composure on defence.

We wanted to take their run away and just utilise our pressure method, and really come out and get up in their face.

It hasn't been the start of the season that we desired, but I think knowing that our best footy holds up, if we can do that over a four-quarter period, I’m pretty excited for what this group can do.

May on… building team connection

Playing a few games consistently together, there's a lot of connection growing, and I think the more games we can play together as a young group, it'll have its weight in gold.

Having that connection going inside 50 is something we've lacked a bit at the start of this year.

We started to build a bit of that on Sunday night.

May on… Tom Edwards’ return

Having Tom Edwards back was great, it was my first game I've played with him and it was great to see him out there, he's such a great fella.

He’s someone who's super level-headed, and when he's got the ball in hand, he's going make the right decision.

He's a great character, and I’m looking forward to playing a few more games with him.

May on… new rule change

It's been exciting as a forward; we get a lot more quicker entries and it gives us an opportunity to exploit them out the back of the contest.

It’s something that if we can exploit and find out how that works best for us, that's a huge positive.

May on… goals for round five

Something we want to work on is coming out on that front foot.

Our first quarter on the weekend is something we would like to have back and go again.

But we showed in the second half that we were able to come out, show great character and not give in, and really come out and play our best footy.

If we can do that from the get-go and play four quarters of a brand of footy consistently, the sky's the limit.