The Daicos difference: A special report into the Pie prodigy

By Jake Niall

Collingwood star Nick Daicos.Credit: Getty Images

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Scott Pendlebury couldn’t nominate another he’d played alongside who possessed the innate on-field intelligence of Nick Daicos.

“Footy IQ and skill,” said Pendlebury, in response to the question of what separated the younger Daicos brother from the herd.

“He’s got some of the best skill I’ve ever played, with the footy IQ is off the charts … probably the best footy IQ I’ve played with.”

Pendlebury paused, lending weight to his addendum. “As a second year guy.”

Nick Daicos is a player of his time and ahead of his time. At 20, he is already one of the game’s most damaging and valuable players. His productivity is unprecedented for a player of his vintage over the past two decades – the precocious Chris Judd and Joel Selwood included.

The question that Nick Daicos’ second season invites isn’t his ranking in the AFL today, nor what he might achieve in future, nor even whether he can perform at a sufficient level, after seven weeks’ absence, to drag Collingwood over the line against the Giants.

Nick Daicos.Credit: Stephen Kiprillis/The Age

It’s why this second-gen generational player is on a higher plane than any 20-year-old we’ve seen since the draft system took hold in the 1990s. So, what are the factors – upbringing, temperament or particular gifts – that set him apart?

Elite sporting performers usually have traits that are either very rare or have a combination of abilities that form a combination that is near enough to unique.

Wayne Carey could take astounding pack marks and pick up the footy at his feet, plus kick well with both feet. Carey had balance, spring, speed, strength, courage and skill.

Judd had acceleration, a devastating sidestep and outstanding awareness. He was, as with so many ground-level greats, hard to tackle.

Lance Franklin had stunning agility, speed and skills – evasive and by foot – for a 199-centimetre, 106-kilogram key forward. He could run further and faster than men of his dimensions.

What does Nick Daicos do, aside from getting the ball often and using it with lethal effect?

Different level: the Daicos traits

For those who’ve watched him closely, within Collingwood, other clubs and his family, it is plain that he makes decisions – and executes them – faster than other players.

No contemporary is better placed to assess how Nick Daicos makes quick decisions and moves the ball to a teammate quickly – speeding up the play, almost – than his (also) formidably skilled older brother, Josh.

“Yeah, it’d be pretty accurate,” Josh Daicos said of his brother’s rapid decisions and disposals. “He loves to go at the game and he does, almost at times seem like he’s moving really fast and even ball in hand, like some of the stuff he does, his decision-making.”

Exhibit A: Anzac Day, second quarter. Nick Daicos has marked, halfway between the boundary line and the centre square, 60-65 metres from goal. Bomber Nic Martin contacts him gently as he marks. Daicos falls to ground.

In his call for Seven, Brian Taylor says Daicos “tries to milk the 50 (metre penalty).” But he’s on the turf for barely a couple of seconds, before he bounces up, moves immediately on to his left side and kicks a low 25-metre pass – weighted perfectly to Pendlebury in space. The ball is kicked over a couple of Essendon defenders.

It happens so fast, the Bombers don’t have time to station more numbers back.

A “normal” player wouldn’t have a) the skill to execute that left-foot kick, b) the confidence to do it, or c) be able to do so in the time frame that Daicos had to spot Pendlebury in space.. Pendlebury goaled, incidentally.

“When people say they see the game before it happens, that’s Nick,” said Pendlebury, who has comparable vision. “Like he’ll get it and he’ll already know where his exits are.”

Nick Daicos and Scott Pendlebury after the Magpies’ Round 8 win over the Swans at the MCG.Credit: Getty Images

Pendlebury said there was a game earlier this year when commentators criticised passages in which Daicos allegedly “didn’t go as hard as should.” Pendlebury’s explanation? “He was actually already thinking like ‘get this, give that, avoid that.’

“But he forgot to get (the ball) first. That was the only mistake he did, he just took his eye off the ball because he was already thinking about releasing someone. That’s why he’s such a weapon, inside or outside, he’s going to kill you.”

Pendlebury, 35 and still an architect with the footy, has had memorable exchanges of handballs with Nick. “Often it’s he gives to me, I’ll give it back. He’s so much quicker.”

Standout sportspeople in ball sports – team or individual – possess three qualities that the merely good don’t have, according to the AFL’s innovation manager and umpiring coach Damian Farrow and his former colleague, Tennis Australia’s head of innovation Machar Reid.

These essential three traits – which Daicos owns, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal – are as follows:

“Inside or outside, he’s going to kill you”

1. The necessary physical gifts, such as speed or strength/agility, to perform at a high level. There is broad agreement that Daicos had good speed and exceptional agility.

2. Technical mastery of skills, to the point that “your technique can withstand large amounts of pressure,” as Reid put it. Daicos’ skills, as Farrow noted, are exceptional – one touch, kicking either foot, and handball.

3. Outstanding decision-making. “You’re able to make decisions quickly and well and that allows you take advantage of the space like others can’t,” said Reid.

“It requires a blend of those three things at a young age.”

Daicos has delivered a stunning second season at the top level.Credit: AFL Photos

Daicos’s gifts in reading the game and distributing the ball are similar to ex-Hawthorn champion and current coach Sam Mitchell, who was also dual-sided by foot and hand and could exit stoppages in different directions.

The difference is that Daicos also has leg speed and possibly even better lateral movement. “Physically he’s a step above Sam Mitchell,” said Reid.

His relative weakness is lack of size (184 cm, 80 kilograms) compared with the powerful midfield beasts, such as Marcus Bontempelli and Christian Petracca, and, as with many greats, he is less versed in defensive actions.

In the game of the father – the footy family

Kevin Sheehan, the AFL’s perennial talent manager/draft pathways expert, saw the pre-AFL versions of Carey, Judd, Franklin, Joel Selwood, Luke Hodge and just about every champion of the past 30 years. All of them had talents that marked them as special, Franklin booting eight for WA in an under 18 trial game – in a half, while Sheehan witnessed Carey taking pack marks that others couldn’t in the national under-17s for Victoria in 1988.

Meet the Daicoses: Peter, Maddie, Nick, Josh and Colleen after Nick was drafted in 2021.Credit: AFL Photos

Sheehan saw Nick Daicos dazzling for Carey Grammar in the same team as Gold Coast guns Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson, despite being two draft years behind that duo. “He was completely unfazed by the opposition.”

The period from ages six to 12 represent what Sheehan called “the golden years” for skill development in footy (and other sports). As the son of one of the code’s most skilful players seen, Peter Daicos, Nick and his brother Josh were given a head-start that, when combined with the genes of both parents, created a pair of excellent footballers.

Peter Daicos marinated his sons in the skills of the game, rather than emphasising fitness. Crucially, “the Macedonian Marvel” made the skills training fun, would use full-sized balls for his boys and get them to use a wet ball, furthering their touch and techniques.

“In under-10s when you have a size three ball, we’d always train with a full-size ball,” Josh Daicos said of his father’s skills regime. “Using bigger balls. yeah, wet balls at times, everything like that. We just had fun with it and Dad just had different ways he thought helped.”

Josh reckoned his mother Colleen’s influence was undersold. “Mum at times was the harder one on us … Dad was almost the relaxed one. So it was interesting. But she’s been amazing, whether it was like all mums taking us to football training, the food, you know always looking after us.”

Josh felt Nick also benefitted from having an older brother at Collingwood. “Nick’s really mature and he’s spent a lot of time around the club, even before he was drafted … seeing me go through it really helped Nick. So I think he got the advantage of almost a head start compared to other 18-year-old draftees fresh into the system.”

Josh said the family had all contributed. “But at the end of the day, it’s the kind of person Nick is. He’s pretty humble and he really just loves getting better.”

Josh said he and Nick gained inspiration from their father’s highlight reel. “Early in the day we’ll sometimes flick on YouTube and watch highlights of players and dad’s always seems to get Nick and I pumped before a game.”

On the ball

Teammates marvel at Nick Daicos’ relentless approach. Whereas his freakish father played in only a quasi-professional era, young Nick has been raised in a time in which the most talented kids were hot-housed and trained in the elite system; in this Daicos resembles Gary Ablett jnr, who also followed an outlier father with astounding gifts.

Brayden Maynard felt confidence was the Daicos calling card. “It’s not arrogance. He’s someone who wants to get the most out of himself every day, like he’s an absolute freak of nature … his confidence and the way he handles himself is the best I’ve seen.”

Brayden Maynard.Credit: Getty Images

Will Hoskin-Elliott told this masthead’s Peter Ryan that Nick usually brings at least one footy to team meetings.

“He doesn’t stop. That is probably the biggest one (difference). He will come straight off the training track and be straight on to the sprung floor with the footy already.”

Nick Daicos is always on the move. And while Hawthorn’s hardball tagger merchant Finn Maginness is among the few opponents who’ve curtailed his influence, he’s not easily stopped, either.

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