Nick Daicos.
The Daicos Effect - 'The phenomenon where the whole of a club's hopes and dreams of success dramatically increase upon the arrival of a supremely talented youngster who shows poise and composure beyond his years thereby leading to real success' - J. Brown, 4th March 2024.
We have never seen a player do what he has done in his first two seasons. Many people have said he was the best first/second year player since Chris Judd. Chris Judd didn't do what Nick Daicos has done in his first two seasons.
Injury causing him to miss the final four matches of the 2023 home and away season was the only thing that stood in the way of him sweeping every individual award on offer, though he still managed to finish top three in the Brownlow, AFLCA Coaches Award and AFLPA MVP, in only his second season.
He topped off his year to return from injury for the Preliminary and Grand Final, playing influential games in both matches to be rewarded with his first premiership for the club. Reflecting on the play that resulted in the De Goey goal that put Collingwood back in front in the late stages of that game, it is highly doubtful that Collingwood win the Grand Final without Nick Daicos doing what he does best.
Starting the 2024 season as the Brownlow Medal favourite, he was the shining light in a disappointing year for Collingwood, adding another string to his bow as an inside midfielder in the absence of injury hit teammates Mitchell and De Goey - winning the AFLCA Coaches Award and the Copeland Trophy, in addition to high finishes in both the Brownlow Medal (polling more votes than any other player in the history of the game had polled prior to 2024), and the AFLPA MVP.
In 2025, he was acknowledged by his peers as the Most Valuable Player in the game, finished 4th in the Coaches Award, and despite being a short priced Brownlow Medal favourite, was relegated to second place by virtue of a surprise win by Matt Rowell.
We need to track his career progression as he pushes for GOAT status, and what better way to do that than through use of a spreadsheet:
I have added the 'Fadgelow' in the above table - the player I believe is the best player in the competition across the full season (including finals). In 2023, I rated Daicos as #1 (ahead of Bontempelli), 4th in 2024 (Behind Heeney, Neale - who stormed home with an incredible finals series - and Cripps), and 1st in 2025 (head of B. Smith and Rowell).
Another interesting data set is the following list of 21st century players and how many wins/podium finishes in the three major individual awards - as you can see by the following, Nick is fast emerging as one of the absolute great players of the 21st century based on this table:
I have also rated the top 50 players in the history on the AFL/VFL competition, based on what I have seen and read, and we'll tick each of these players off as Nick's careers surpasses them:
Obviously the top 50 in the history of the game is an very difficult list to crack, and there is no doubt some recency bias in the players listed in the 31 to 50 range, given many of the players in have seen play the game are included in this range. Riccuito was the first to drop out at the expense of the inclusion of Bontempelli (who will possibly continue to climb in the rankings), with recent players like Fyfe and Martin missing the cut due to the fact I didn't feel they had the longevity at the uber-elite level to justify inclusion in this list.
I'm predicting it is a matter of when, not if, we're anointing Nick Daicos as the AFL GOAT. And quite possibly the Greatest There Will Ever Be (GTWEB).
Original thread - https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/nick-daicos-can-he-be-the-goat.1377194/
The Daicos Effect - 'The phenomenon where the whole of a club's hopes and dreams of success dramatically increase upon the arrival of a supremely talented youngster who shows poise and composure beyond his years thereby leading to real success' - J. Brown, 4th March 2024.
We have never seen a player do what he has done in his first two seasons. Many people have said he was the best first/second year player since Chris Judd. Chris Judd didn't do what Nick Daicos has done in his first two seasons.
Injury causing him to miss the final four matches of the 2023 home and away season was the only thing that stood in the way of him sweeping every individual award on offer, though he still managed to finish top three in the Brownlow, AFLCA Coaches Award and AFLPA MVP, in only his second season.
He topped off his year to return from injury for the Preliminary and Grand Final, playing influential games in both matches to be rewarded with his first premiership for the club. Reflecting on the play that resulted in the De Goey goal that put Collingwood back in front in the late stages of that game, it is highly doubtful that Collingwood win the Grand Final without Nick Daicos doing what he does best.
Starting the 2024 season as the Brownlow Medal favourite, he was the shining light in a disappointing year for Collingwood, adding another string to his bow as an inside midfielder in the absence of injury hit teammates Mitchell and De Goey - winning the AFLCA Coaches Award and the Copeland Trophy, in addition to high finishes in both the Brownlow Medal (polling more votes than any other player in the history of the game had polled prior to 2024), and the AFLPA MVP.
In 2025, he was acknowledged by his peers as the Most Valuable Player in the game, finished 4th in the Coaches Award, and despite being a short priced Brownlow Medal favourite, was relegated to second place by virtue of a surprise win by Matt Rowell.
We need to track his career progression as he pushes for GOAT status, and what better way to do that than through use of a spreadsheet:
I have added the 'Fadgelow' in the above table - the player I believe is the best player in the competition across the full season (including finals). In 2023, I rated Daicos as #1 (ahead of Bontempelli), 4th in 2024 (Behind Heeney, Neale - who stormed home with an incredible finals series - and Cripps), and 1st in 2025 (head of B. Smith and Rowell).
Another interesting data set is the following list of 21st century players and how many wins/podium finishes in the three major individual awards - as you can see by the following, Nick is fast emerging as one of the absolute great players of the 21st century based on this table:
I have also rated the top 50 players in the history on the AFL/VFL competition, based on what I have seen and read, and we'll tick each of these players off as Nick's careers surpasses them:
Obviously the top 50 in the history of the game is an very difficult list to crack, and there is no doubt some recency bias in the players listed in the 31 to 50 range, given many of the players in have seen play the game are included in this range. Riccuito was the first to drop out at the expense of the inclusion of Bontempelli (who will possibly continue to climb in the rankings), with recent players like Fyfe and Martin missing the cut due to the fact I didn't feel they had the longevity at the uber-elite level to justify inclusion in this list.
I'm predicting it is a matter of when, not if, we're anointing Nick Daicos as the AFL GOAT. And quite possibly the Greatest There Will Ever Be (GTWEB).
Original thread - https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/nick-daicos-can-he-be-the-goat.1377194/
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