Brandon Starcevich captured the attention of the footy public with his NAB AFL Rising Star nomination for round 13.

Inside the Lions, his deeds have been drawing praise all season.

The West Australian entered his third season with just five senior games to his name after a rough trot with injury in his first two years at the club.

However he was the big improver over the pre-season and it surprised nobody at the Club when he was named in the side for the season opener against Hawthorn.

It was when footy returned after the Covid 19 lay-off that Starcevich’s standing in the eyes of his coaches became obvious when he was handed the tough assignment on Fremantle gun Michael Walters.

“It is good to have the backing of the coaches and their belief in your game that you can hold up and play those sorts of roles,’’ he said.

“It gave me a lot of confidence to get these match ups early and from there I’ve been building my game off my defensive stuff.’’

The 21-year-old was recruited as a midfielder but with spots on the ball hard to come by a suggested role change from Fagan last season created the chance Starcevich had been waiting for.

His career is only 18 games old but he now looks like an established part of the Lions’ defence.

“I am really enjoying it,’’ he said.

“It was the start of last year when Fages mentioned he might try me down off half back.

“It was hard at first but I got it accustomed to it pretty easily in the end, the boys down there helped me learn it.’’

Defenders aren’t always in the news and most would joke that they happily leave the glory for the forwards and midfielders but Starcevich admits he was happy to receive the NAB AFL Rising Star nomination after

“It was pretty nice to get some recognition for the efforts put in over the years so that was a good feeling,’’ he said.