Dion Prestia thriving in ‘a different world’ after joining Richmond from Gold CoastELIZA SEWELL,
Herald Sun
August 11, 2017 7:00pmDION Prestia had forgotten how mad Melburnians are for footy.
Six years of relative anonymity on the Gold Coast will do that to you.
“It’s just a different world,” Prestia said this week.
The depth of feeling in the heartland hit him hard and early, after he signed for the Tigers at the end of last season.
“When you get Richmond supporters seeing you and saying thanks so much for choosing Richmond and I hope you go well, that’s the best thing,” Prestia said.
“There’s Richmond supporters everywhere, everywhere you go.
“On the Gold Coast it’s a newer club and they’re trying to build the brand, there’s obviously not as many members. It’s just so different.
“I knew when I decided to come to Richmond it was something I’d have to get used to.
“Even fans coming down to the captain’s run — we get a couple of hundred — which is crazy. People just love seeing you run around.”
Prestia was drafted to the Suns with pick No. 9 in 2010. But after six seasons, home — his family still lives in Craigieburn — was calling and Victorian clubs circled.
He chose the Tigers — Hawthorn was also interested — partly because he was keen to pair up with top-rung midfielders Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin. Things are turning out pretty well so far.
And while his family is rapt to have him back in town, his dad Osvaldo would still prefer he was wearing different colours.
“He’s Melbourne, 100 per cent,” Prestia said of his dad.
“He’ll come to the games, but he still goes for Melbourne. I’d be interested to see, if it came down to us two in the Grand Final (who he’d choose).
“When we played them and we beat them, he wasn’t very happy about that.
“Even when I’d decided I was at Richmond he was like, ‘Is Melbourne still a chance?’.”
Prestia had knee surgery midway through last year and it has been a slow burn at Punt Rd as the season has progressed, building to the sort of form that won rave reviews against the Hawks last weekend.
And there have been reasons beyond what the club may have released in weekly bulletins.
He has been carefully managed. From Rounds 1-8 he would train twice a week in standard sessions rarely — just once a month.
And even now he’s being kind to his body — he didn’t play against the Gold Coast in Round 19 as he rested an Achilles niggle.
But he insists his knee hasn't troubled him at all this season.
“I don’t do the captain’s run, the day before the game, just so I’m not doing three days in a row on my legs,” he said.
“At the start of the year I would, probably once a month, train twice a week and the other times I would be on an AlterG (anti-gravity machine) just so you run at 70 per cent of your body weight, or I’d not train, just do swimming off legs, just to manage yourself.
“I hurt my hamstring (in Round 6) and once I came back (in Round 9) we decided my knee’s got to be able to cope with training twice a week and I needed to do it for my soft tissues, my calves and my hammies, so let’s just do it.
“I’ve reacted really well to it. My knee, it’s the best it’s been since I got the initial injury and my body’s going really well.”
Prestia has gone to Lion Dayne Zorko and Hawk Tom Mitchell in recent times. He describes it not as a “full-on” tagging role, but he’s there, paying attention.
“I know I’m not going to keep them to 10 disposals or anything like that, it’s just a negating role,” he said.
“I limit their damage. Tom Mitchell, I know he might cop a bit of criticism for just getting handballs, but he gets it out to his teammates in good spots, that’s where I just tried to limit his influence.
“Zorko, he was probably a good get for me. He’s a really good player, a real burst player, so I just tried to keep him in front of me. It’s something I did on the Gold Coast in my first couple of years, just to kind of learn.
“I’d do like a Jobe Watson or Dane Swan, just to learn how they go about it, their running patterns.
“We kept doing it and I was able to find the footy as well. I enjoy the role because it gives you a bit of a challenge.
“I don’t know if I’ll go Danger, he’s probably a bit too big for me (laughing) … if I do get him it should be a good experience and a lot different challenge to what I’ve faced.”
Prestia plays at Richmond and lives in Richmond too, with teammate and good friend Josh Caddy.
The pair first played together in under-13s in a Diamond Valley representative team, started their AFL careers at the Suns together and reconnected at the Tigers this season.
In Round 5 they played their 100th games together.
“When my trade was getting done and there were all the rumours flying that I was going to Richmond he gave me a call and was like, ‘Are you going to Richmond?’,” Prestia said.
“I let him know and he was like, ‘I’m thinking of going as well’. I’m like, ‘Mate, it would be awesome if you did’.
“As soon as I heard that I was getting into the club as well.
‘We live together. We work off each other a lot. We’re pretty similar types off the field, we’re pretty cruisy.”
Prestia is now well acclimatised to his new world order. He smiles when he thinks about what might happen at Tigerland come September.
“We’ll be playing in a finals series in four weeks’ time — who would have thought (that) at the start of the year.
“It’ll be pretty crazy if we keep going, which I’m pretty confident that we will. It’ll be pretty crazy here in September.”
TIGERS SPREAD THE LOADGUN recruit Dion Prestia says he came to Richmond to play with superstars Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin, but all-over input is driving the Tigers.
Third-placed Richmond plays Geelong (fourth) at Simonds Stadium on Saturday, trying to break a hoodoo at the Geelong fortress that stretches across four decades.
Richmond goes in favourite and ex-Sun Prestia played his best game for the season in last week’s win over Hawthorn.
While midfield bull Martin — the raging Brownlow favourite — has been the Tigers’ shining light, Prestia said he wasn’t solely responsible for the club’s rise up the ladder.
“I feel like our forward line, we always have a couple of blokes who step up at the right time, it might not be their week one week, but they keep working hard and it works,” Prestia said.
“I find the midfield to be the same. I’ve had a couple of games where I’ve been a bit quiet and a couple of really good games, but I think it’s been the same pretty much with all of us, besides Dustin. Dustin’s probably been good every week.
“But I think that’s the strength of our football club. We don’t rely on anyone to win us games and be the one we rely on every week, we’ve always got other blokes who step up and share the load.”
Prestia, an Assumption College old boy, said he had been stunned by the mania surrounding his new club.
“I could have easily stayed up on the Gold Coast and been comfortable with how I was going but decided to make a move and play with the likes of Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin — it’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here.
“At the moment it looks like a really good move.
“I knew it was going to, not hinder my performance, I knew I still had a big role to play in the team, but I knew I had other blokes around me who are very capable of putting the team on their back and winning games for us.”
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