How Collingwood get the best out of Nick Daicos

Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne thinks that Collingwood has to free Nick Daicos up if they want to challenge in 2025.

Daicos played purely as an inside midfielder in the Opening Round clash against GWS and after battling cramp and a heavy tag from Toby Bedford, didn’t have much of an impact on the game.

While Daicos has starred in an inside midfield role over the last 12 months, rating inside the top seven on Champion Data’s rankings for having the most impact in terms of how he wins the ball, Hoyne is certain he can be even better if he is able to express his ball use again as he did in 2023.

Hoyne thinks that Daicos is a one-of-a-kind midfielder when he’s able to receive and use the ball by foot, and believes Collingwood must free him up so his ball use rating stops sliding.

“Through injury to Tom Mitchell and through injury to Jordan De Goey over the last 18 months, Nick Daicos has been mainly used as a ball-winning midfielder,” Hoyne told SEN's Sportsday.

“Since he's such a good footballer, his ability to then be able to play that role can't be questioned and he's had the seventh most impact of any player in the competition with how he's actually won the ball.

“But how he's used it has taken a hit. He still has a good rating, but he's now outside the top 20 players in the competition with the impact that he's having with ball in hand.

“So, how Collingwood actually gets him back to being ball-user Nick, as opposed to ball-winning Nick is going to determine a lot of what they do this year.

“The version that you see of Nick when he uses a footy is something that basically only he can do as a midfielder in the competition.”

Given that Jordan De Goey will miss Collingwood’s Round 1 clash against Port Adelaide, Hoyne pondered whether Jack Crisp could be thrown inside to take some of the load off Daicos’ shoulders.

In a second-receive midfielder role, Hoyne thinks that Daicos will again flourish, much as Finn Callaghan did for GWS last Sunday.

“Hopefully, De Goey is back soon, but it might take him a little while to get back to big midfield minutes,” Hoyne said.

“So, in the meantime, potentially you need to look at Jack Crisp getting thrown into centre bounce minutes. He didn't attend to centre bounce at all in the first half against GWS on the weekend.

“It’s just trying to help this guy out so you can actually get him to actually be a second receive type player with his ball-use ability.

“Compare him to what Finn Callaghan did on the weekend, and the Finn Callaghan profile is what we saw from Nick in 2023. It was only nine contested possessions for Callaghan and 25 uncontested possessions.

“I think this is the challenge for Collingwood over the next period of time until Mitchell comes back and until De Goey is absolutely fully fit.”

Daicos will hope to bounce back when the Magpies face the Power at the MCG on Saturday night.