Nectarios Triantis is a 19-year-old centre-back who plays for the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League. Triantis is a graduate of Western Sydney Wanderers’ academy but he moved to the Mariners for increased playing time (or any playing time) ahead of the 22/23 season. This proved to be a smart career move when an injury crisis catapulted Triantis into the starting XI. Triantis played very well and now seems fairly established as a regular starter. Triantis has played six times for Australia at the U-20 level.
Triantis is a fantastic 1v1 defender. He does not get dribbled past very often. He is very good at winning the ball back and at shepherding opponents away from dangerous areas. He is quite tall (how tall exactly is hard to say because they just hate giving that information out in Australia) and he uses his length quite effectively when defending. He is fairly aggressive, regularly making defensive interventions higher up the field. He rarely gets burned in these situations, demonstrating good situational awareness. He is also quite good with the ball at his feet. He has a good passing range and is pretty comfortable when carrying the ball. However, his aerial ability is not particularly impressive at this stage. As he gains experience this may improve. I have noticed some slightly odd positioning from him in the past. Sometimes he would seem to get sucked in very narrowly, giving opposing wingers a lot of space to cut inside. But this seems to be improving somewhat as he gains more A-League-level experience.
Triantis has relatively few professional appearances under his belt so staying in the A-League for at least a full season is probably what is best for him. But that has not stopped him from drawing attention from abroad. There have been reports of interest from clubs in France and Germany. I would imagine the source of the interest would be second-tier clubs at this stage. I would expect him to be able to reach that level in a year or two and then be able to reach a top-five league a few years further down the line.