It was the match-up that could have decided the match – Matthew Pavlich (275 games and 546 goals) versus Daniel Talia (28 games and 20 years old).
If you haven’t watched AFL all year, you would say Pavlich would win the battle easily, but it was a different story with Talia shutting down Pavlich to only two goals in the Adelaide Crows versus Fremantle Dockers clash.
Pavlich was coming off an eight goal game against the Eagles and leading the Coleman Medal with 55 goals. There was a lot of speculation before the game whether Rutten or Talia would take him, but Talia got the job.
And Talia did a brilliant job, and when Pavlich is not going too well, Fremantle are usually not going very well either.
The Crows ended up winning easily, 119 to 91. The Crows should have put Fremantle away earlier but inaccuary cost them. After this performance you would think Talia has the Rising Star in the bag and would be a very good chance on getting All Australian centre half back.
This year Talia has shut down guns like Nick Riewoldt, keeping him to only two goals, kept Hurley to only three goals, kept the J-Pod to one goal, shut down Chris Dawes to zero goals, and the list goes on.
He also shut down his biggest rival for the Rising Star award, Jeremy Cameron, to no goals in Round 16. Brenton Sanderson has said, “He just wins the Rising Star now. For a young kid to do what he’s doing every week he just wins it.”
At the moment Talia is unstoppable, but come finals time he will be up against some huge opponents like Franklin, Cloke, Goodes, Petrie and Hawkins, which will be a huge challenge for the youngster.
He will be a very vital player for the Crows in September and could be the difference between the Crows winning and losing.
So surely everyone would have to agree Talia has the Rising Star in the bag, what does everyone think of his 2012 so far and how do you guys think he will go in finals?
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