Everything about Nick Daicos seems … inevitable.
Ordained an AFL champion before he entered the league, he already has a premiership, three consecutive All-Australians, a best and fairest, two runner-ups, an AFL MVP, a Rising Star award, four straight Under-22 team of the year selections and an Anzac Day Medal. All at the age of 23 and from just 99 games.
But listing the accolades almost undersells him.
Because what makes Daicos different isn’t what shows up on paper; it’s his aura.
It’s not just the kick inside 50 or the creative handball over the top. It’s the way he conducts the game. Designs it. Sees it. He plays with an advantage others on the field don’t have; a sixth sense. A supernatural ability to scan what he’s about to run into, take a 360-degree snapshot in real time and make his decisions a step ahead of everyone else.
At times, it genuinely feels like he’s working from the future, like that famous slow-motion deduction scene from Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes, where everything is mapped out before it even happens.
You can’t teach that.
You can’t coach the way he weaves through traffic, instinctively understanding not just where players are, but how fast they’re moving and where they’re about to be. It doesn’t show up in stats. It’s innate. Instinctual.
And it does make you wonder, how are generational talents actually created?
Because it’s hard to ignore the lineage. His father Peter Daicos had that same magic, and Nick has grown up immersed in it. Watching patterns. Absorbing movement. Imagining plays, consciously or not, even though he was born a decade after his dad’s final AFL game. That kind of football IQ isn’t just learnt, it’s lived.
You could argue he’s as close to the perfect player as we’ve seen.
Then you get to the skill execution and somehow it gets even better.
He doesn’t just kick the ball, he whispers to it. Caresses it into space for teammates.
He’s even created his own signature kick, that right foot drop punt that looks like it’s going straight before subtly being pulled out and to the left of his body mid-action, changing the angle with deception that defenders simply can’t read. The inside-out kick. Players across the league are trying to replicate it. We try it at training all the time.
For years now, teams have tried to tag him, and for years it hasn’t worked.
What separates Daicos is the rare combination of traits he brings. Most athletes lean toward either endurance or speed. He has both. Elite aerobic capacity – he can run all day – combined with the ability to sprint repeatedly at high intensity. And then on top of that, genuine top-end speed.
It makes him almost impossible to match-up on.
Put a pure runner on him and he’ll burn them with speed. Put a quicker tagger on him and he’ll outwork them over four quarters. And now he’s taken it another step, manipulating the tagger himself. Moving across half-back, midfield and half-forward, shifting the magnets in real time to disrupt both his opponents and the structure around him.
He doesn’t just play the game, he moves the pieces.
What’s just as impressive, though, is what sits underneath it all.
Someone with that level of talent could be forgiven if they let a bit of flair or ego creep in. But Daicos is the opposite. His work rate is relentless. His consistency is elite, and that might be the most underrated trait in football.
Over the past three years he’s averaged 30-plus disposals, 20-plus score involvements and more than 15 goals per season. The only other players to hit those numbers for three consecutive years are Gary Ablett jnr and Dane Swan.
That’s the company he’s keeping already, and this is just the beginning.
Consistency like that doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from preparation. From training at playing intensity. From an obsession with getting better every single time he steps onto the field.
The Daicos name has always been synonymous with brilliance, but also with hunger. That drive to be at one’s best, every time.
He is undoubtedly Collingwood’s most important player. That was clear in round four when the high-performance team pushed to have him play against the Lions. It was an aggressive call to even fly him up there, even if he ultimately didn’t play. That’s how important he is.
And he will be again Thursday night, taking on the Blues in one of football’s greatest rivalries. Once again he will be the orchestrator of brilliance, an unstoppable force that not even Sherlock Holmes could combat.
And that’s what elevates Nick Daicos from a star to something more at just 23.
This isn’t just about what he’s done. It’s about what he is and what he creates for his team.
For Pies supporters, it’s hoped he remains in the black and white forever.
A generational player and one of the greatest young talents we will ever see.
Happy 100th, Nick Daicos.
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