Prestigiacomo was the most experienced Magpie to take the field in the NAB Cup grand final and was clearly upset that his team put in such a poor showing.
“We don’t really take it as a practice match. It is a grand final and we were trying to win it. Unfortunately Geelong were just too good tonight,” the defender said.
Prestigiacomo had a busy night against the Cats, with the ball spending plenty of time in Collingwood’s defensive 50.
“If you lose by more than ten goals it is going to be down there a fair bit. We’ve just got to try and take what we can out of the game and try to find some positives and look forward to round one,” he said.
“We always expect Geelong is going to be up there again this year. We knew we were going to come out and play a pretty good team and we were well and truly expecting it but we just didn’t meet it head on.”
Prestigiacomo only managed two games in an injury-affected 2008. But following Shane Wakelin’s retirement at season’s end he is the elder statesman in Collingwood’s youthful back line.
He admits he feels an extra responsibility.
“I suppose I bring a bit of experience and I’ve got to try and take the lead a bit more now that Jimmy (Clement) and Wakes are gone. We’ve still got a few of the younger guys who are pretty experienced such as Heath (Shaw) and Harry (O’Brien) and players like that,” he said.
Prestigiacomo said the Magpies’ NAB Cup had largely been a success and had given the team a platform from which to launch into the 2009 season.
“We set out to achieve a good NAB Cup. We wanted to try to get as deep as we could. We made the final and today was pretty forgettable but other than that I think we played some pretty good football and hopefully we’ve taken a few things out of it”, he said.
“We have to keep learning our strengths and weaknesses and try to get a core group of seven or eight players who are going to play most of their games down back so we know how eachother plays.”
