Dion Prestia has been named a vice-captain for the 2016 season alongside Tom Lynch and Steven May.
The 23-year-old said he was honoured to accept the position and play a greater role in developing the future and culture of the club.
“Shows that the boys respect what you’ve been doing the last couple of years,” Prestia told SUNS TV.
“It’s good that we have a lot more responsibility on myself Steve and Tom but we have got to keep building, we have a lot of things to improve ourselves individually.”
Prestia, placed 2nd and 3rd in the Club Champion award in 2013 and 2014 respectively, but was regrettably sidelined with a knee injury in the second half of 2015.
“Hopefully this year I’ll be around a lot more and we can really build on what we did at the back end of last year.”
As a younger member of the wider leadership group, the midfielder noted Nick Malceski and Michael Rischitelli had gone above and beyond in supporting the emerging leaders in previous years and they would continue to take on this pivotal role in 2016.
“Nick Malceski and Michael Rischitelli have been a massive help for us younger boys who have been in the leadership group so they’re going to continue to stay in it and help guide us a bit along with Gary,” he said.
Riddled with injuries, the 2015 season could be categorised as disappointing. However, Prestia said it provided the younger men the opportunity to step-up and take ownership of their team.
“We obviously had a lot of injuries and a lot of our leaders not around the club a lot, so we’ve had a lot of boys step up,” he said.
“A lot of the young boys such as Touky Miller, Steven May, stepped up a lot this year and in the back end of last year so just shows a lot of growth in the group.
“Hopefully they can build on that and we can have a lot more leaders”
Fellow vice-captain Tom Lynch said Prestia was highly respected throughout the team and often encouraged players both young and old to challenge themselves personally and professionally.
“Dion’s great, he’s really vocal on the track and off the track. He sets the standards in his training second to none so he really leads by example.”
Looking ahead to round one of the 2016 season, which will be his sixth for the Club, Prestia noted the general vibe within the team was definitely positive.
“Obviously last year wasn’t what we were hoping for but New Year this year, everyone is on a clean slate, so hopefully we can win some games early.”
