Moons: Prestia belongs amongst Richmond’s eliteBy John Takemura
SEN
Cameron Mooney has declared new Richmond recruit Dion Prestia fits in amongst the club’s high end talent, and says because he has played on the Gold Coast people don’t know how good he is.
The former Geelong premiership star says the 24-year old will make a massive difference to the Tigers in 2017.
“I think he almost walks in there (the top echelon), he’s a very, very good player,” Mooney said on SEN Breakfast.
“If you haven’t seen a lot of the Gold Coast games and a lot of people haven’t…he is a genuine superstar in the making.
“He’s a really good player.”
Forward Ben Griffiths says while Prestia has spent time in the rehab group, recovering from a knee injury, his training standards have lifted others to improve.
“Dion’s been with me in rehab (group) a little bit, but his training standards and determination is going to be a massive asset to the club,” he said.
Joining Prestia at Punt Road is his former Gold Coast teammate, and ex Geelong midfielder Josh Caddy and Mooney believes he will have a point to prove at his third AFL club.
“He didn’t take his game to the next level and a few of them (at Geelong) didn’t take themselves to that next step last year,” he said.
“Geelong really got hurt through that midfield by not having enough guys who were around the A-grade mark.
“He had a really bad finals series, so he’ll be looking to take that next step.”
He says the Tigers will be one of a number of teams that will fight for a spot around the top eight, but isn’t convinced they will get there, declaring they need big improvement from their second tier players.
“They’re in that conversation, I’m not sure if they are an eight team this year, but if you look at their best players, they’ve still got some amazing top-end players,” Mooney said.
“(Brett) Deledio leaving that really hurts, even though he was injured a fair bit last year, but he was almost the icing on the cake of their absolute star players (Dustin) Martin, (Trent) Cotchin, Rance and Jack Riewoldt down forward.
“They’ve got some great top-ends, but can the middle to lower boys lift?”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2017/01/20/moons-prestia-belongs-amongst-richmond-s-elite/
