JACK Darling’s first 99 games are stacking up pretty well.

Compare those games to the first 99 of former Lion Jonathan Brown, and Darling has kicked 35 more goals and laid 203 more tackles than the three-time premiership great.

Darling, 23, is set to reach the 100-game milestone against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday at Domain Stadium and assistant coach Justin Longmuir says he’s only going to get better.



Had he not been sidelined for the first 10 matches of the year as he recovered from a stress fracture in his right foot he would have reached the milestone before his 23rd birthday.



While Brown and Darling are slightly different in body shape and playing style, both have played key forward in their respective teams.



Darling acknowledged Longmuir as the biggest influence of his AFL career, along with his two senior coaches John Worsfold and Adam Simpson, and former Eagles assistant Phil Walsh.



Longmuir said Darling had been a pleasure to coach since he walked in the doors as an 18-year-old after he was drafted with pick no.26 in the 2010 NAB AFL draft.



"I think because he's come in and played from day one people probably see him as a little bit older than what he actually is," Longmuir told AFL.com.au.



"He's still a young man. The scary thing is that he's got so much improvement left in him."



Longmuir said Darling’s defensive pressure for a forward is exceptional. Darling credited Worsfold and Walsh for teaching him that aspect of the game but Longmuir said it comes naturally.



"He loves the defensive side of the game and that's often rare in young kids that have had it their own way a little bit in junior footy," Longmuir said.



"He really led the way in the forward line in his first year with his defensive pressure and his chasedown tackling and that was probably my first memory of him."



Longmuir said Darling has been easy to coach a career that has already yielded three top-five finishes in the Eagles’ best and fairest in four complete seasons.



"He's not someone that I've had to put a lot of time into coaching," Longmuir said.



"Offensively, just with his marking and his craft is probably something we've worked on a fair bit, just how to use his strengths against different opponents.



"He's unique in the way that he can probably get up the ground and out-run taller opponents but then when he's got a smaller opponent he can take him a bit deeper to goal and use his strength and size.



"He's definitely got some weapons. It's probably just been how to best use those against different opponents."



Longmuir said Darling could also add another string to his bow by developing the ability to pinch-hit in the midfield to impose himself on more games.