After a nervous wait on draft day last year, Michael Talia was more than relieved when the Club he supported as a kid, the Western Bulldogs, called his name at pick 39.

Claiming the month between the draft combine and the AFL National Draft , the longest of his life, Talia took advice from his older brother, Adelaide Crows player Daniel Talia, to get into the best shape possible before draft day.

Watch Michael Talia speak to BulldogsTV about his draft experience on the media player above.

“He probably just told me to probably get as fit as I can heading towards the Club,” Talia said.

“There is no better start to show how fit you are coming in. He gave me his program so he was very helpful with that and just to get advice off him - he had been in the system for two years.”

The night of the draft saw a large group of Talia’s closest family and friends come together, waiting in anticipation of his name being called out.

“My parents invited about 60-70 people to come over and I had no idea, so I was fairly filthy at them for that,” he joked.

“Once draft night as you can expect I was nervous, real nervous.

“When my name got picked out at 39 to the Bulldogs I couldn’t be happier, it’s obviously the club I grew up barracking for, so it was a good night, a great experience and yeah, I loved every minute of it."

The key defender who made his AFL debut in round 19 is the grandson of Bulldogs 1954 Premiership player Harvey Stevens.