THE RACE for this season's NAB AFL Rising Star Award has been run, according to Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson, and the winner is Daniel Talia.

Talia was superb against Fremantle on Saturday, shutting down Freo's superstar skipper Matthew Pavlich; his latest in a growing list of impressive scalps.

Sanderson said that given the number of premier forwards Talia had taken down in 2012, the award was as good as won.

"He just wins the Rising Star now," Sanderson said.

"He's taken scalp, after scalp, after scalp, and Pavlich is an outstanding player and he's had a great season, he's been in red hot form.

"For a young kid to do what he's doing every week he just wins it."

Pavlich shaped as the potential match-winner for Fremantle at AAMI Stadium, having been in sensational form since round nine and kicked bags of five, six, seven and eight goals.

But Talia wore Fremantle's skipper like a glove on Saturday afternoon and kept him to just two goals.

Talia was nominated for the award after his round-12 effort, when he smothered St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt and kept him to just nine possessions and two goals.

Taken at pick No.13 at the 2009 NAB AFL Draft, Talia's development had been fast-tracked after the Crows lost defenders Nathan Bock and Phil Davis to Gold Coast and GWS respectively in consecutive seasons.

The 20-year-old's job on Pavlich was no doubt a match-wining performance, but Talia was not alone in that category.

While admitting Adelaide struggled with the immense pressure Fremantle applied in the first term, Sanderson said the Crows played season-best football in the second half, led by Patrick Dangerfield and Matthew Wright.

Dangerfield showcased his incredible combination of acceleration, toughness and clinical finishing to boot a stunning long-range goal in the third term, while Wright was everywhere and finished with two goals. 

"They certainly pressure every possession you get, I didn’t think we handled it well early though," Sanderson said.

"Having said that though, our second half was probably as good as we've seen this year.

"Patrick was great, Matty Wright, we had a lot of team players today … Paddy and Matty Wright were probably standouts.

"There's players who are good inside, but they don't have [Dangerfield's] power to get out of the contest."

With Adelaide to finish the minor round with games against the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne, Saturday's contest was critical in the club's efforts to secure second spot on the ladder and a potential home preliminary final.

Although a top-two finish seems a near-certainty, Sanderson said the most pleasing aspect of the 28-point win was beating a "hungry" side.

"It's important because we beat a good side and we beat a hungry side," he said.

"Fremantle are one of those teams that's trying to get in the eight and stay in the eight at this time of the year, so we knew that they'd be up for the challenge and they'd throw everything at us."

Harry Thring covers Adelaide news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_Harry.