Having now played 50 games of AFL football, Thursday night’s loss to St Kilda will rate pretty low in Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos’ career.
Daicos had been at the centre of the build up to his side’s Round 2 clash with the Saints but on a big night for the 21-year-old, he couldn’t impact the contest in a 15-point loss.
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley was asked for his thoughts on Monday morning.
“I’m going to come out in defence of Nick Daicos preemptively,” Buckley told SEN Breakfast.
“But at the same time, I’m going to throw him a challenge because I think that there are going to be some misconceptions about the way he defends, or the way he invests in the defensive side of the game.”
Daicos finished with 21 disposals against St Kilda, his quietest non-injury-impacted game since Round 22, 2022. Along with four clangers, it was a disappointing outing from the son-of-a-gun.
Buckley, who coached the Magpies from 2012-2021, moved to defend several of Daicos’ defensive efforts from Thursday night.
Missed tackles and failures to bodyline the ball were highlighted in the aftermath, but Buckley believes Daicos’ defensive game is as stronger than many at the Pies.
“His pressure rating last year was 6th at the club… for instance, Jordan De Goey was 10th. His pressure ranking this year has gone up, he’s third at the club for pressure on the opposition,” Buckley said.
“He’s the highest corraler, perceived pressure. He’s the third highest chaser, second-highest closer, highest implied pressure and fourth highest physical pressure.
“I’ve seen and heard questions about his buy-in to the defensive elements of the game. I would encourage anyone who watches the game, watch his third, fourth and fifth efforts to put pressure on the opposition. He is a ball-getting player, so he’s not the best tacker, because the best tacklers are prepared to lose their feet to stick that tackle.
“He's a ball-getter, so he won’t lose his feet to stick a tackle and it means his tackle efficiency isn’t quite as good as it could be. I don’t know if you ever want Nick Daicos to lose his feet because one of his greatest attributes is keeping his feet to be the outnumber at the next contest.”
After pointing to those stats, Buckley offered a challenge to Daicos for the coming weeks.
The dynamic on-baller only laid the two tackles against St Kilda and it’s in that area in which Buckley believes Daicos can improve in.
“The challenge I would put to hope is his tackle efficiency. He was tackling at 65 per cent last year, he’s tackling under 50 per cent this year,” he continued.
“So when you get your chance to tackle, you’ve got to stick them. That might be one of the little things that Craig McRae is talking about that turns into big things.”
McRae on Thursday night pointed to surprising errors from his stars as signs of little drop-offs across the board.
“There’s a lot of fundamental errors we’re making, from experienced players, that you wouldn’t expect,” McRae said post-game.
“I think you can see the fundamental skills that are just sloppy, rusty, clunky, just giveaway goals.
“The little things that you just take great pride in. Let’s get busy on these things that we’re really good at, because for parts of tonight … whether you want to look through an optimistic lens, it was a lot more like us tonight than it has been for the last two weeks.”
Collingwood are just the third reigning premiers to be 0-3 since 1974 and face a Grand Final rematch against Brisbane at the Gabba to kick off Round 3.