EMERGING Hawk Billy Hartung produced arguably his best game at AFL level on Sunday afternoon – and says his confidence is growing.

The dashing midfielder collected a career-best 32 disposals in the Hawks’ 46-point Round 2 win against West Coast Eagles, eclipsing his previous best by six disposals.

“I felt a lot more comfortable today,” Hartung said post-game.

“I had more of a role to play as a winger with Hilly out, so it gives me a bit more responsibility. I feel that my footy is improving a lot from last year.”

It was Hartung’s decision making which stood out most, with the 21-year-old sending the Hawks inside 50 on five occasions and using it effectively just under 90 percent of the time.

Stand-in skipper Jordan Lewis said Hartung “probably played one of his best games for the club,” praising both his inside and outside work.

For Hartung, the focus was on an improved team performance after a disappointing season opener against Geelong.

He said the Hawks were able to execute from the get-go.

“There were a few areas we had to work on, and we were able to improve from last week,” Hartung said.

“It felt a lot better out there – it felt like we moved the ball a lot better, which you can obviously see from the result of the game.

“That’s what we wanted to do, have a fast start against the Eagles.

"We knew they were going to come out pretty hard at us, so a good early start was going to put ourselves in a good position for the rest of the game.”

With 29 games under his belt, Hartung is among the more experienced players in the Hawks’ younger brigade.

He can see the group starting to gel together.

“I think the younger boys are growing in confidence,” Hartung said.

“There’s James Sicily, there’s Angus Litherland, there’s Jonathan O’Rourke… they all played their part and were outstanding.

“Every game we play with each other, we feel like we get to know each other’s game a bit more and we’re getting more comfortable."

Hartung hopes that improvement will continue into next week against another tough opponent, the ladder-leading Western Bulldogs.

“They’ve been playing some great footy this year – it’s going to be a tough game next week,” he said.

“I’m sure if we come with the same intent we did today, we’ll put in a good performance against the Doggies.”