Considered a future leader of the club, Dion Prestia is looking forward to further developing his leadership skills under star captain Gary Ablett during the fast approaching pre-season training campaign. 

“I want to work on my leadership and skills over the off-season,” Prestia told goldcoastfc.com.au.

“I’ll go back, work on that, and also look at different areas of my game I can improve.”

In 2013, the 20-year-old midfielder enjoyed his best season to date – averaging 25 disposals in 20 senior appearances to finish runner-up to Gary Ablett in the GC SUNS Club Championship. 

At just 20, Prestia has shown star-studded potential, but isn’t about to rest on his laurels. 

A supreme user of the football with great ball-winning ability, Prestia made a significant impact in the midfield this year, and it showed on the Club’s key performance indicators as the combative Victorian finished among the team’s leaders for disposals (2nd), tackles (3rd), rebound 50s (2nd), inside-50s (3rd) and clearances (2nd).

After niggling injuries restricting his rise previously, Prestia was pleased to have produced such a consistent year in his third campaign. 

 “To get 20 games out of 22 – I’m pretty happy about that,” he said.

“I’d never done that before so it was probably the best thing about my footy this year and to be runner-up in the Club Champion certainly capped it off.”

Visiting family and friends in Melbourne over the off-season break, there was no escaping the buzz of finals footy that annually captures the hearts of the AFL stronghold.

With the ambition of making finals footy in  their sights next year, Prestia is hopeful the Gold Coast will be in a position to further push for a maiden finals berth. 

 “Everyone’s ambition be finals,” he said.

“That’ll be the team’s goal, but we know we will need to work even harder than we did last year if we are to a chance to do that. So hopefully we can come back with a positive attitude.”