HAWTHORN defender Kurt Heatherley credits a conversation with star teammate Shaun Burgoyne for helping him produce two of his best VFL performances to date.

Burgoyne’s advice – to keep things simple and focus on the basics – has paid dividends for the New Zealander over the past fortnight.

Despite Box Hill Hawks suffering defeats in their past two matches, Heatherley has been a shining light in defence.

“I’m just happy to do my role, but obviously we’ve lost the last couple of weeks… I’d rather get the win than play in a losing team,” he said.

“Hopefully I can keep playing my role for Box Hill, keep putting my name up for senior selection and hopefully the wins start coming for us down there.”

The 21-year-old is now in his third year as a Hawk, after being upgraded to the senior list at the end of 2015.

In each of his past two games, the 193-centimetre key back has collected 22 disposals – plus 10 marks against Geelong Cats at the weekend, and five marks against Northern Blues the week prior.

Heatherley said he has been frustrated at times with his performances this year – but was pleased things had started to click over the past fortnight.

“I think just getting back to basics (has been the key) – taking the first option and just being aggressive,” he said.

“I sort of went away from that at the start of the season and got a little bit frustrated, but the last couple of weeks I’ve really started to just focus on playing my role for the team and doing whatever’s possible to try to get the win.”

Against the Cats on the weekend, Heatherley spent time on AFL-listed forwards including Mitch Clark and Nathan Vardy – which he described as a good learning experience.

Hawthorn development coach Chris Newman said Heatherley was arguably the standout defender during the match.

“(Kurt) ended up with 22 disposals – so that’s two weeks in a row he’s been able to accumulate over 20 possessions, which is a great asset to have as a big unit,” Newman said.

“He took 10 marks, which was also a highlight.

“His ability to read the ball and take marks off oppo boot is really important for our game. A lot of his contested work was really good too.”

Heatherley is still confident he can push for an AFL debut this season – and says watching a number of fellow youngsters step up in 2016 had been an encouraging sign.

“Obviously I’d love to be playing AFL, but it’s a pretty hard team to break into when you’ve got Gibbo and those kind of guys in there,” Heatherley said.

“At the moment it’s about doing the basics well, keep working hard at training and doing all I can do to get my body right and put my best foot forward.

“There have been a handful of guys who have stepped up (this year) in James Sicily, Tim O’Brien, Kade Stewart... There’s obviously a number of guys who have gone in there and they haven’t gone in there shy – they’ve actually had an impact on games which is pleasing and a good sign for the Hawks.

“I’ve just got to try to keep being consistent and control what I control.”