Collingwood young gun Nick Daicos may be the Brownlow Medal favourite in just his second year of AFL, but his coach Craig McRae is more impressed with Nick Daicos the person, he revealed on AFL 360.
McRae highlighted a moment in Friday night’s win over the Western Bulldogs when Daicos made his way to the bench in the third term.
“The admiration for this young fella – one thing, I text him over the weekend, he kicked that amazing checkside goal and he comes to the bench and (teammate) Will Hoskin-Elliott has broken his hand,” McRae explained on AFL 360.
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“He’s just kicked this great goal, we’re all admiring him (Daicos).
“He kicks this goal, goes to the bench and just checks on Will – he’s so humble and invested in others.
“We love it about this kid. He’s a great player and a great person.”
Collingwood Press Conference | 03:47
Daicos, the father-son number four draft pick of 2021, was viewed as such a prestigious talent as a teen that he even trained at the Magpies before being selected officially by the club.
With dad Peter a club great, and brother Josh already on the list, then-coach Nathan Buckley was full of praise for what Nick had shown at those sessions.
“There’s no disputing his absolute talent,” Buckley said back in 2021.
“Effort, attitude wise he looks really good.”
Now more than two years on, Daicos is leading the way in Brownlow betting – and he’s on track with Fremantle’s two-time winner Nat Fyfe in one statistic.
Daicos is currently sitting on 91 votes in the AFL Coaches Association champion player award – only Fyfe to this point in a Brownlow year had more votes than the Magpie currently sits.
McRae said he’d been impressed by Daicos’ shift to the midfield, which looks more permanent week by week.
“When he was down back, the decision-making and transition was really high and we thought, ‘OK that’s a weapon of ours – if we take that out, what’s the cost?’,” he said on AFL 360.
“We weren’t sure what the cost was going to be.
“But now all of a sudden, we’ve got (Isaac) Quaynor, (John) Noble and (Oleg) Markov getting high transition numbers and we’re going, ‘hang on a minute, that might have been something we thought was a cost but it might not be’.
“If there’s a benefit to the midfield and there’s a benefit down back at the moment.
“We admire this young lad – he works harder than any young player I’ve seen at his craft.”
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