Collingwood needs Nick Daicos more than ever. Not the shackled version who missed more than half his kicks on Saturday night, but the Cape legend who wins games out of his boot.
The Magpies’ blockbuster Friday-night against the ladder-leading Swans was ready to shape as mission impossible. But it became more difficult after a nine-goal defeat by Geelong, which was compounded by the shock of skipper Darcy Moore and the confirmation that Scott Pendlebury will break the games record the following week.
Veteran Steele Sidebottom is also a doubt – his availability on the six-day break dependent on an assessment of GPS data by the club’s high performance team.
An army of black and whites made up the majority of the 83,166 in the grounds for Pendlebury’s 432nd match, but the crowd had thinned out before the final whistle.
When Daicos got possession late in the last term, there weren’t enough Pies fans left to avenge the massive taunts he received from the faithful. They had seen enough.
Although Daicos was among Collingwood’s best players, he was far from his best. His total of 29 goals was complimented by six shutouts. Ten of the 17 kicks were deemed ineffective or offensive. He worked at a 55 percent waste efficiency.
True, he had Oisin Mullin attached to him like a cabin in the stern, but the 2026 Collingwood have no support to cover their main act against the elite. That Mullin’s output through 21 disposals was matched by the Daicos was a huge win for Geelong coach Chris Scott, who overruled a general with foot soldiers.
Mullin was the spark for the Cats’ victory in the third quarter, winning the first goal midway through the second half and setting up Ollie Dempsey’s goal 12 seconds after the ball had gone up. Daicos didn’t bother chasing his tagger.
Magpies coach Craig McRae seemed to feel any criticism of Daicos, launching his defense of his superstar, who his opponent’s number rates as the tournament’s best player.
“Kicking efficiency is not a number we care about a lot,” McRae said.
“I’m not going to sit here and judge Nick Daicos’ decisions or the effectiveness of his skills. I think we all admire what he does, and we’re not perfect. We don’t aim to be. He’s a high-level tournament player, getting marked and testing his courage for our team.”
If Daicos’ expectations are unfair, it shows how important it is to the aging Magpies, who have done little in nine rounds to counter pre-season predictions that they are on the slide.
Daicos and Pendlebury are the key components in the Magpies machine that was repeatedly isolated by Geelong. Their undue reliance on the duo was exposed in their thrashing by the Brisbane Lions last month.
Pendlebury’s quest to break Brent Harvey’s games record calls for him to do so at home at the MCG but the Pies, who are likely to be 10th at the end of the round, are hardly in a position to take such liberty.
“Scott won’t play next week,” McRae said. “We shamelessly plan to play him a week later, all planning with his body and things. This is a plan that we stick to, high performance, but also rewards and celebrates one of the legends of our game.”
Although he won’t be the difference between victory or defeat at the SCG, the Pies are better placed to cause a bolover and wear it instead of watching.
Despite conceding so many goals, Collingwood were outscored by four goals from midfield, an area McRae admitted still plagued his team. Fixing this part of the game would be much more difficult without the knowledge of Pendlebury and us.
So is the job of repairing the Pies’ disorganized defensive structure. On many occasions, the Magpies defenders were overwhelmed near goal, after further breakdowns in the field created by the Cats.
“Their wings and their forwards and their centre-backs, they’re all making little deals and spitting up front, and then they’re swapping,” veteran Pies defender Jeremy Howe told this newspaper.
“It’s probably the way they’re trained, it can be effective at times. So it can put us as a defensive unit in contention.”
Moore’s shock after hitting his head while contesting a ground ball against Mullin at halftime was felt by the captain and the team.
It forced a change which saw running machine Isaac Quaynor, who had halved his battle with Ollie Dempsey on the wing, moved to defence. Dempsey, with his patience, had damage after halftime. His end-to-end run set up one of the Cats’ game-changing touchdowns in the third quarter.
“He’s another example of a player who is an elite runner,” Cats coach Chris Scott said. “We still thought he had a real impact on the game early on, but we were confident that as the game went on, he would be harder to shut down.
“We thought he was very influential.”
As Ollie Henry will be bedridden after four goals against his former club and the dominance of Bailey Smith and Max Holmes in midfield, it was Patrick Dangerfield’s outstanding performance that could have had the most impact on the Cats’ season. He finished with 15 goals and two assists.
“It’s not unusual for us to build a balance of boys matches in an AFL team, but it’s one where we think we can get good value from it when we do,” Scott said.
Cats have the luxury of letting their champion work through his gears. Collingwood do not cooperate with Daicos.
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