Collingwood Magpies need Nick Daicos more than ever as Sydney Swans showdown awaits and Scott Pendlebury sits out ahead of games record
Collingwood needs Nick Daicos more than ever. Not the chained-up version who missed more than half of his at-bats on Saturday night, but the caped superhero who won games with his own shoe.
The Magpies’ blockbuster game against the top-seeded Swans on Friday night was already shaping up to be an impossible task. But things got a little tougher after Geelong scored nine goals; This added to the concussion suffered by captain Darcy Moore and the confirmation that Scott Pendlebury would break the games record the following week.
Senior Steele Sidebottom also has his doubts; Other than a six-day break, his availability depends on GPS data evaluation by the club’s high performance team.
The black-and-white army made up the majority of the 83,166 people in the stands for Pendlebury’s record-breaking 432nd game, but attendance had visibly dwindled long before the final siren.
By the time Daicos took control late in the last term, there were not enough Pies fans left to retaliate against the resounding jeers he received from the faithful. They had seen enough.
Although Daicos was among Collingwood’s best players, he was far from his best. He boasted 29 disposals with six strikes. 10 of his 17 hits were ruled ineffective or rattles. It was operating at 55 percent disposal efficiency.
Yes, Oisin had Mullin glued to him like a barnacle to the hull of a ship, but the Collingwood of 2026 do not have the supporting cast to take on the leading role against the elite. That Mullin’s impact through 21 disposals was comparable to Daicos’ was a major victory for Geelong coach Chris Scott, who neutralized a general with infantry.
Mullin was the improbable spark of the Cats’ match-winning breakthrough in the third quarter, winning the first cross of the second half to slot home Ollie Dempsey 12 seconds after the ball was cleared. Daicos didn’t bother chasing the person following him.
Magpies coach Craig McRae appeared sensitive to any criticism of Daicos and stood firm in his defense of his rival’s superstar, whom he rates as the best player in the competition.
“Increasing productivity is not a number we care about that much,” McRae said.
“I’m not going to sit here and judge Nick Daicos’ decision-making or skill efficiency. I think we’re all amazed at what he does, and we’re not perfect. We don’t aim to be. He’s an elite player in the competition, he gets tagged in and he does his best for our team.”
If expectations for Daicos are unfair, it reflects his importance to the aging Magpies, who have done little in nine rounds, blowing pre-season predictions out of the question.
Daicos and Pendlebury are key cogs in a Magpies machine routinely picked apart by Geelong. Their unhealthy trust in the duo was clearly evident in their clash against the Brisbane Lions last month.
The importance of Pendlebury breaking Brent Harvey’s match record requires him to do so on home soil at the MCG, but the Pies, who are likely to sit 10th at the end of the tour, are not in a position to take such liberties.
“Scott won’t play next week,” McRae said. “We shamelessly plan to play him the following week, everything will be planned with his body and other things. It’s a plan where we stick to high performance, but at the same time we reward and celebrate one of the best in our game.”
Although there’s no difference between victory or defeat at the SCG, the Pies have a much better chance of causing a furor when they’re on standby rather than watching.
Despite mutual stoppages, Collingwood trailed by four goals from the centre; It’s an area McRae admits remains a major concern for his team. Without Pendlebury’s skill and intelligence, this part of the game will be harder to fix.
So is the task of repairing the Pies’ uncharacteristically disorganized defensive structure. The Magpies’ defenders were often outnumbered near goal after the wily Cats’ breakdowns further up the pitch.
Experienced Pies defender Jeremy Howe told this imprint: “The wingers, the forwards and the centres, they all get little deals, they come forward and then they replace each other.”
“That’s probably the way they’re coached, it can be really effective at times. So it could put us in contention a bit as a defensive unit.”
Moore’s concussion after heading in a tackle on Mullin at half-time was keenly felt by both captain and team.
This forced a change that resulted in Isaac Quaynor switching to defense, who at least halved his duel with Ollie Dempsey on the wing. Dempsey did the damage after halftime with his durability. His end-to-end run accounted for one of the Cats’ four game-changing goals in the third quarter.
“He is another example of a player who is an elite runner,” Cats coach Chris Scott said. “We still thought he was making a real impact in the early game, but we had the belief that the longer the game went on, the harder it would be to suppress him.
“We thought it was really effective.”
With Ollie Henry sleeping off four goals against his former club and the dominance of Bailey Smith and Max Holmes in midfield, it may be Patrick Dangerfield’s improved performance that will impact the Cats’ season the most. He finished with 15 disposals and two goals.
“It’s not typical for us to improve men’s match fitness in the AFL team, but we think we can get good value out of it in doing so,” Scott said.
The Cats have the luxury of letting their champions shift gears. Collingwood disagrees with the Daicos.
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