Balancing Clay Smith’s defensive prowess with a level of outside polish will make him a more dangerous impact player, Western Bulldogs Development Coach Ashley Hansen says.

While the 19-year-old already has a reputation as being ruthless at the contest, Hansen said embracing Smith’s natural talents while continuing to develop his outside game would allow him to take the next step as a player. 

“His appetite for the contest is second to none, Clay, and that is one of his real strengths,” Hansen said.

“He can create something from nothing which is also a really valuable asset to have, because not everyone can do that.

“His next step is to now to keep adding that polish to his game.”

Smith’s creativity and vision in recent weeks has sparked a number of scoring opportunities and successful chains of play - generating momentum in the forward half.

Hansen said that as the 2011 draftee refines his skills and grows in confidence, he has the potential to be a damaging player both inside and outside the contest.

“I’d like to think with continual skill development and working on that polish… he can become that nice balance between that hard, aggressive contested player which we know him as now and he can have that polish that can damage opposition sides on the outside,” he said.

“It was really good to see his evolution come along really well on the weekend.

“I think the defensive aspects of his game as a forward were really good too, [it’s] such a vital area of the game and he did that well with a couple of great tackles and really got the ball turning over or a stoppage for us in a good field position.”

Sunday’s standout performance against West Coast saw Smith collect a personal best 26 disposals, as well as six clearances and four tackles – but it was his two goals and seven inside 50s that was most impressive.

“His ability to work the contest and win it for us and then work back inside 50 and get some really good forward 50 entries was really important,” Hansen said.

“It was a really exciting part of his game that he is able to halve contests when he was outnumbered and really bring others into the game.

“He probably could have kicked four goals [but] to hit the scoreboard twice… was really important."