ADELAIDE defender Tom Doedee's stunning start to the year has teammate Daniel Talia believing he is more than comfortably filling the hole left behind by the departed Jake Lever.

Despite being drafted at the end of 2015 with pick 17, Doedee has had to wait until this year to make his senior debut and has hit the ground running. 

Talia was asked on SEN if the 21-year-old could be better than Lever, who was traded to Melbourne in October after requesting to move back to his home state. 

"Yeah, I think so. I think Tom has been great these first four or five weeks and has fitted in and I think he’s done better than Lever," Talia said. 

"He's affecting everything back there, fitting in the role and really dominating. We're not feeling the loss of Jake at the moment. 

"Tom has put his hand up and played some awesome footy in the first five weeks so it's been a credit to him. I thought he could have played last year in any other side." 

Doedee received the round two nomination for the NAB AFL Rising Star and had 25 disposals, 11 marks and five rebound 50s against Sydney in Adelaide's upset 10-point win on Friday night.

Talia later backtracked somewhat, saying Doedee's emergence had meant Lever leaving was less detrimental to last year's runner-up than expected. 

"I didn't say he'd be better than him, but he's fit right in and played really well these first five weeks, so we haven't felt the loss as much as people would have thought," he said.

"Tommy's a star and hopefully just keeps rolling."