Collingwood coach Craig McRae says umpires are watching Nick Daicos' attention as West Coast weigh up tag

West Australian

4 days ago

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has revealed the umpires are looking closely at the extra attention being paid to his superstar Nick Daicos as West Coast weigh up tagging the Brownlow Medal fancy.
Daicos has been heavily targeted for most of his 84-game career, but the tactics of opposition players on the Magpies' vice-captain have come into the spotlight in recent weeks.
Melbourne wingman Ed Langdon restricted Daicos to only 19 disposals in the King's Birthday clash before the bye, while Marcus Winghager was fined for striking the 22-year-old, while vision showed the St Kilda stopper kneeing him in the hamstring off the ball at the weekend.
McRae revealed at his weekly press conference that he'd spoken to the umpires and AFL coaching engagement manager Dan Richardson about the tactics used against Daicos.
'Without oversharing — I think there's a level of eyes on him (Daicos) and I was pleased to hear that,' he said.
'There are four umpires; they're looking for things particularly around stoppage. It's just nice to hear that.
'Everyone's just trying to support him. He's a high-end talent, Nick and this is a progression. Even chatting to Pendles (Scott Pendlebury), he went through this early in his career. You have to go through this … the best players have to cope with this. This is part of Nick's journey right now.'
Eagles coach Andrew McQualter said the Eagles were yet to decide if they would tag Daicos, but if they did, it would likely be a job for Brady Hough.
'He (Daicos) is such an exceptional player. His brother (Josh) is pretty handy too, and they've also got a few others that are quite capable,' he said.
'It's definitely a challenge. There's no easy answer to it. Even when you tag Nick, he's pretty handy still.
'We think Houghy has got the skill set to do it, for sure. Playing (in) defence for the first four years of his career and then building his game that way ... if we do go that way, it probably would be Houghy.'
Asked about the Eagles potentially tagging Daicos, McRae said: 'It's just the journey of Nick, isn't it? Every opposition wants to take something away from Nick, and for a couple of weeks, it seemed like they took a little bit away,' McRae said on Thursday.
'I said after the game that this isn't the first game that he's had 30 possessions and been tagged. He's been doing that for 70-odd games, getting tagged regularly and high performing.
'I just thought we supported him a bit better and he's a pretty hard player to tag, his running capability is huge.'