Once again afc.com.au delves into the 'Recruiting Files' to recall how some of the Club's stars came to be Crows.

Today, National Recruiting Manager Hamish Ogilvie remembers Daniel Talia's draft story ...

Daniel was in the AFL talent pathway throughout his junior career.

We tracked him closely the whole way, so he was well known to us by his draft year of 2009.

He played plenty of footy – we watched him play for his school, Assumption College, as well as the Calder Cannons in the TAC Cup and Victoria Metro at the Under-18 National Championships.

Daniel wasn’t in the AIS-AFL Academy squad, but his form as a 17-year-old for Calder was very good and he backed that up with a good carnival at the Under-18 National Championships.

Daniel was named at centre half-back in the Under-18 All Australian team in ‘09’, but he played a lot of footy as a forward for Assumption. I saw him kick 10 goals playing at full-forward for Assumption in a game against Marcellin (as a Year Eight student in 2005).

He even played a game in the midfield for Vic Metro at the Champs. I remember watching the game. It was at (the then) Skilled Stadium and Daniel was very impressive.

We always thought Daniel would develop as a key defender, with a slight chance he might be able to play a bit of midfield, maybe. But you never know, he might play forward one day if Sando decides to go that way. He did kick a few nice goals this year.

We went and interviewed Daniel at home with his mum and dad, and again at the draft camp. We also went out to Assumption and interviewed the principal, Michael Kenny, who is a made Crows supporter, and a couple of his teachers.

Daniel’s schoolwork was more than solid ... but the constant feedback we got from school was that all Daniel thought about was footy, preparation and being professional.  So, we knew then that he was really professional, but I don’t think we could’ve known he would be just as professional as he is – he’s meticulous. One of the best we’ve ever seen.

He had a good, loyal group of close mates and they all gave him a big wrap when we spoke to them.

He loved footy, was super competitive and came from a great family. It was a very straight forward interview process because everyone gave him glowing reports.

We always had Daniel around our top 10, but we didn’t think he’d get to us at pick No.13. We thought Carlton might pick him if they wanted a key defender, but they took Kane Lucas at No.12 instead.

Daniel’s grandfather, Harvey Stevens, played for the Bulldogs (Footscray), so there was always a bit of a threat they might take him but they didn’t have a pick until after us (No.15).

When Daniel was still available at our pick we thought, ‘Gee, we’ve got an overabundance of key backs’, but you can never have too many good players, so we took him.

We knew there was no rush on Daniel from a development point of view. At some stage, Nathan Bock was going to retire and Daniel was the logical replacement. We thought Daniel and Phil Davis would play together in our backline for a long time, but it wasn’t to be …

We never could’ve predicted that Nathan Bock was going to leave and then Phil Davis the year after.

As it’s turned out, it was lucky we did pick Daniel. It just goes to show the benefit of staying true to your draft order and taking the best available player.

Daniel had a couple of injuries in his first 18 months at the Club, but he’s hardly missed a beat since. He’s a Rising Star winner and has showed he’s going to be a very good player for us for a long time.