Cameron made the announcement at Giants training on Tuesday before Taranto rang his American father to deliver the news. Mr Taranto returned serve immediately, saying he'd already booked a speedy round trip to Australia for Sunday's round-one season opener against Adelaide.

The former Sandringham Dragon made instant headlines during preseason when he was flattened by Sydney Swans star Lance Franklin, before peeling himself off the canvas and snapping a goal later in the match.

"It was a bit of a welcome but he certainly bounced back up from it," Sandringham Dragons talent manager Ryan O'Connor said.

"I don't think he'd have come up against the size of Buddy too much in his footy to date, and I think Mummy [Shane Mumford] was very close by, it was a bit of a wake-up call."

That Cameron has opted to throw Taranto an AFL debut is a massive show of confidence in the 19-year-old midfielder.

He'll step into a side which is favoured to win the AFL premiership, and help plug the hole left by Stephen Coniglio's ankle injury which has sidelined him for at least the first month of the new season.

"Tim has the ability to adjust to whatever level and have an impact on the game and he did that consistently last year," O'Connor said.

"Whether it was school, TAC, Nationals, the Young Guns game he played and all of that type of stuff. He's got a real feel for sport in general.

"That's another sign of his footy too, some kids struggle, they play well at a high level but if they go down to a low level and they struggle to adjust.

"He's got a few tricks as well, he can mark the ball above his head. He's got a hell of a work rate, he's put a bit of size on.

"Because of his basketball background he used to probably step out of trouble and evade. Halfway through last year he started to realise, hang on a minute I'm going to put the shoulder down and go straight through you.

"That was part of the evolution of his game as well as he became more and more confident, and more assertive."

Taranto was taken with the second pick in last year's national draft, behind Andrew McGrath who also came through the Sandringham Dragons system before being drafted by Essendon.

Giants teammate Josh Kelly is also a fellow Sandringham graduate, as is Oliver Florent who was drafted to the Sydney Swans with pick No. 11.

"Tim's been a very balanced young player from a very early age, in a way it was just a matter of tying it all together last year," O'Connor said.

"I thought his year like Andy McGrath's who went one pick ahead of him, you could hardly fault it. It was very very good."