Swans defender Michael Talia has a fight on his hands.

The 22-year-old former Bulldog will be looking to lock down a key defensive role at his new club next season, a tough task given the Swans’ already settled back half.

Ted Richards and Heath Grundy have been pillars in defence for some time now while Jeremy Laidler and Dane Rampe can both play tall and are quickly becoming important cogs in the machine.

However, Talia is coming off his best season to date. He played 14 of his 30 career games in 2015, averaging three rebounds and six one-percenters (spoils, shepherds etc.) a game and was given big jobs on some of the best forwards in the competition.

That experience, on top of a big pre-season, will be used to build his case as the new season approaches.

That’s not the only fight on Talia’s hands.

The 194cm defender dislocated his finger during a tackling drill shortly after beginning pre-season training, an injury which required surgery and has sidelined him from joining in on full-intensity training.

Instead, Talia has been running laps to maintain a strong fitness base ready for the resumption of training in January.

“I had a little mishap involving Dean Towers. I had the compound dislocation but I was lucky enough to get into surgery that day,” Talia said, ripping back the Velcro on his finger cast.

“It hasn’t affected my running at all; I just can’t do any ball work until after Christmas so it gives me time to work on a bit of fitness.”

The new year will see Talia leave a difficult period behind him in which he was accused and then cleared of leaking game-sensitive information ahead of the Bulldogs’ qualifying final against Adelaide.

Talia, who denied any wrongdoing during the entire investigation, was looking forward to moving on and diving into “the next chapter” of his promising football career.

“At the moment my sole focus is to earn the respect and build relationships with my new teammates,” he added.

“I’m definitely over the whole situation so I’m looking forward to finishing off pre-season, putting my best foot forward and hopefully having a crack in the NAB Challenge.”