Nick Daicos

'It's unbelievable': Coach's stunning praise for young star, message to Ginnivan over free kick drama.

“He’s got a lot of talent and he’s played a role for us … every week there’s a story about this and I don’t want it to be a story.” “My message to Jack just after the game is that I just want him to keep attacking the footy hard and what comes of it, whether it’s a high tackle or a holding the ball, keep attacking the ball,” he said. “It just seems to be going to another level,” McRae said of the Daicos’ campaign.

The old and the new of Collingwood combined to extend the Magpies' winning streak to eight, celebrate modern master Scott Pendlebury's milestone 350th game ...

“He’s just doing it in different ways. McRae twice leaned on Pendlebury’s milestone as a motivating force, in the days leading up to the match and again at three-quarter-time when the Crows held a narrow lead. “Ideally we don’t want to be in that position to dig deep but we’re finding ways ... it’s almost the thrill of the chase. “He’s so important to us, he leads from the front and takes others with him. A give-and-go between Daicos and Pendlebury gave Collingwood the lead and the momentum which became seemingly insurmountable until Taylor Walker slotted his fourth and fifth goals to leave the contest - one of the best of 2022 - in the balance until the final siren. On the other end of the experience scale, debutant Ash Johnson, the older brother of Adelaide forward Shane McAdam, should have registered a goal with his first kick in AFL ranks, only to miss a relative sitter of a soccered effort from close range. Later in the first quarter, the 2021 mid-season draftee from the northern WA town of Halls Creek beat Tom Doedee in a goalsquare one-on-one, dragged the pill away from Jordan Dawson and slotted the six-pointer with his second kick before being mobbed by his teammates. The six-time All-Australian, five-time Copeland Trophy winner and 2010 Norm Smith Medallist was in the thick of the action from the opening bounce on Saturday afternoon, accruing the first centre clearance, laying an important early tackle and setting up Collingwood’s opening goal with a slick handball to Nick Daicos. In mint form and regarded as fine practitioners in the wet, the Magpies conceded the first three goals in driving rain before turning the tables with the next four majors to take the lead at quarter-time. Taylor Walker booted his second goal in the opening minutes of the term, Darcy Fogarty conjured a marvellous left-foot snap, Riley Thilthorpe converted out the back of a contest and Shane McAdam marked and goaled in time-on and the Crows held the upper hand at half-time. The first-year Magpies coach also said the debut season of the club’s young gun Nick Daicos was the best opening season he has seen from any player in his time in the AFL. Veteran Steele Sidebottom’s smother in the middle of Adelaide Oval with five seconds left to deny Harry Schoenberg a long entry epitomised the Magpies’ sheer will and determination.