Nick Daicos: Collingwood star ‘sore’ but ready to face Fremantle Dockers and likely Corey Wagner attention

Collingwood coach Craig McRae admits Nick Daicos is sore and “getting beaten up a bit”, but the Magpies’ Brownlow Medal favourite will be ready to lead the charge when Fremantle call on the MCG on Sunday. It comes as the young star prepares for another tag from Corey Wagner after the versatile Docker helped limit Daicos to his least-effective game of the season when the two sides clashed earlier this year. Daicos is a warm $2.75 favourite with bookmakers to go one better than his second-place finish in last year’s Brownlow count, with the AFL’s top disposal-getter enjoying another superb campaign. While the 22-year-old appeared laboured at times in last week’s loss to Gold Coast, McRae said Collingwood would for now resist the temptation to rest him or play him in the substitute’s role. “The facts were (that) he looks sore, and the GPS says that,” McRae said on Thursday. “He’s getting beaten up a bit. But that’s part of the job, isn’t it? “We’re looking at his loads at training - this is the first session he’s done this week. “It’s hard to keep him out, though. You say ‘Nick, what about maybe playing sub? Nup... What about starting on the bench?’ “It’s a challenge to keep one of the best players off the field. But we’re very conscious of his loads.” One of the ways the Pies are managing the physical burden and tagging attention on Daicos is by increasing the proportion of time he spends in a forward role - a shift that began in the side’s previous meeting with Fremantle in round nine. Amid close attention from Wagner, Daicos was limited to a Champion Data player rating of 6.0 - which remains a season-low figure - and just 18 disposals, his smallest tally for a non injury-interrupted game since his debut campaign in 2022. It included 24 per cent of the game playing as a forward. To that point in the season, Daicos hadn’t spent more than 13 per cent of any game in attack, but he’s crossed that threshold in six of Collingwood’s nine matches since. Wagner this week said he had already gone into coach Justin Longmuir’s office to offer his tagging services for Daicos, and when asked if the Dockers would reprise the match-up, Longmuir on Wednesday replied: “We’ll look at it”. The Magpies will weigh up their own plans for quelling the influence of Caleb Serong, after the star midfielder bounced back from two difficult matches with strong tagging attention to torch Hawthorn last week with no dedicated stopper. McRae said the pros and cons of implementing a run-with role needed to be examined. “Tagging’s difficult because it ties yourself in knots,” McRae said. “We’re well aware of that, because we see oppositions do that to Nick, and we see what it costs and the reward of that.” NICK DAICOS – PERCENTAGE OF GAME PLAYED FORWARD Source: Champion Data