Emerging key-backman Daniel Talia’s “dour” defensive style has earned him the nickname ‘Presti’ - after former Collingwood full-back Simon Prestigiacomo - from some of his Crows teammates.
Talia, 20, plays with a maturity beyond his years, regularly standing and shutting down the opposition’s best tall forward.
A defender in the traditional mould, his first instinct is to spoil and clear the ball from the dangerous area, and as a result he’s averaged 10.8 possessions in his 16 matches.
One of the best full-backs of the past 20 years, Prestigiacomo earned a reputation for blanketing his opponents but not winning much of the ball himself, averaging 7.2 possessions in 233 games.
Midfielder Patrick Dangerfield said a couple of cheeky Adelaide veterans had started to make comparisons between Talia and the Magpies great.
“Brent ‘Radar’ Reilly and Michael ‘Dogga’ Doughty don’t stop calling Dan ‘Presti’,” Dangerfield said.
“Talz had four possessions (against Geelong) on the weekend, which I think was about Presti’s career average. Dan doesn’t want to be a dour defender, but we’re certainly pigeon-holing him with that at the moment.”
Talia might not enjoy the ‘dour’ defender tag, but backline coach Darren Milburn is certainly happy with the way the former first-round draft-pick is approaching his games.
After receiving greater support from his teammates up the ground, who have been relentless in their defensive pressure, Talia has had only 1.2 kicked against him in the past fortnight.
He held Geelong premiership player James Podsiadly to a solitary goal (from a free-kick) last weekend, and kept promising Sydney forwrad Sam Reid goalless the week prior.
Milburn said Talia’s performance wasn’t measured on possessions.
“The way Dan’s playing at the moment is the way we want him to be playing,” Milburn told FIVEaa.
“He doesn’t have to get a lot of the ball. His influence on the team is beating his opponent and bringing the ball to ground. With that in mind, he’s doing a fantastic job at the moment.
“He hasn’t played a lot of footy because of the injury-interrupted start to his career, but once he develops his game, I’m sure he’ll adapt to winning more of the ball.
"Presti was a great player, who played over 200 games, so if Dan could play anywhere near as many games as that I'm sure he'd be happy."
Saturday night football returns to Adelaide next weekend, with the Crows hosting Collingwood at AAMI Stadium. Click here for tickets and match day information.
