Without even taking to the field last season, Dale Morris played an integral role in Michael Talia’s development – inspiring and mentoring the 2011 draftee, despite being restricted to the stands.

In between rehabilitating a severe leg injury, Morris selflessly took time out to impart his wisdom and knowledge on to the 20-year-old key defender, who is forever grateful for the expert insight.

“People always ask me who have you learnt the most from in your first year and I would always tell them Dale Morris, and they would be surprised because he wasn’t playing,” Talia said.

“Just the amount of work that he did with me, we would go to games and we would sit next to each other and we would watch particular back men.

“He would point out parts of the game that he could do better or he did well defensively.”

It was Morris’ day to day professionalism that drew Talia in, just as much as his leadership and reputation as an All Australian defender. 

“They are the type of blokes I want to hang around and the second I got to the Club I just stuck by his side in my first year and even leading into pre-season this year, he’s the one bloke I really stuck with,” he said.

“The way he goes about it, his defensive play is really good – they are the type of blokes you want to attach yourself to.”

Talia is set to play his first senior game for 2013 on Saturday against Port Adelaide and is excited to implement his new tricks against quality opponents.

Playing four games in the home and away season last year gave the Calder Cannons’ recruit a taste of AFL football and Talia has been determined to break back into the senior side ever since.

“[It] definitely helped playing those last four games towards the end of last year,” he said.

“I played on some good players in Johnathan Brown, James Podsiadly and Jake King and players like that – so I definitely took confidence out of it.

“I pretty much learnt the pace of the game so that’s something I really took into pre-season, just focusing on how much quicker it was from VFL to transition to that AFL.”

Before the official pre-season started, Talia made a conscious effort to incorporate more speed drills into his routine, so he could better match the forward powerhouses he would face when given more senior opportunities.

“I did a lot of speed and agility work, so that’s the one thing I took out of it just the pace of the game, how much of a step up it is – and I applied that to my training over the break,” he said.

While Talia was restricted to the sidelines with a broken jaw earlier this season, his return to form in the VFL has been outstanding.

Dour in defence, the 20-year-old has also demonstrated his capacity to provide run and rebound out of the back six during his five games at Williamstown this season.