Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos has shrugged off a hard tag to lead the Magpies to a hard-fought 34-point win over St Kilda on Saturday night.
Daicos was closely shadowed by Marcus Windhager, but was still able to finish with 30 touches and play a pivotal part in the victory.
The margin closed to within 10 points midway through the final term before Daicos stepped up to nail a brilliant goal on the run that sparked jubilant scenes from teammates.
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Daicos himself celebrated with feeling given the close attention he received from Windhager.
The pair were involved in numerous scuffles with Daicos winning four free kicks, but also giving away two as his frustrations boiled over at times.
Daicos set up another goal in the last quarter as the Pies ran away with the result.
Footage emerged after the match of Windhager targeting Daicos off the ball. He appeared to knee the gun midfielder in the back of his thigh, as well as landing a high shot, while using general tagging tactics.
Neither incident drew a free kick from the umpires, but there’s every chance they didn’t see it.
Coach Craig McRae played a straight bat when he was shown the footage, instead focusing on Daicos’ ability to fight through the tag.
“Job of the tagger is to disrupt and he’s done it within the rules if they don’t pick it up, I’m probably not going to comment on the kneeing and things like that, it’s obviously up to others to decide whether that’s a bit too far,” he told Fox Footy.
“I just love how Nick got on with it tonight. One of the big things to do to a tagger is say ‘let’s see if they can go with you’, and some weeks they can go with you and some weeks they can’t. Tonight I thought Nick won that battle.”
Richmond great Jack Riewoldt said McRae was likely biting his tongue with his response.
“I reckon he’d be filthy at that. He’s never going to come out and say it, but that’s his star player basically being harassed for 120 minutes,” he said.
McRae shed more light on the match-up in his media conference.
“There’s always going to be a lot of cameras on it, the spotlight was on it. I just said to Nick when he came off for his first break, we don’t want him to fight the battles, we’ll fight them for him,” he said.
“He didn’t need to get caught up in the wrestle of that.
“As a group and a team, we want to look after him, we don’t want him sitting there feeling like he’s fighting his own battles.
“Nick’s had 30 possessions so you’d say his performance was pretty impactful and the way we looked after Nick, I was more proud of than in recent times.”
Collingwood kicked the last four goals of the game, with the younger Daicos more prominent in the second half.
St Kilda suffered a blow immediately before the first bounce when Mattaes Phillipou, recalled for this match, had to pull out when a lower-leg injury flared as he warmed up.
Beau McCreery was prominent early for the Magpies, but he also left the game at quarter-time because of a hamstring problem.
After plenty of pre-game commentary about tagging, Windhager predictably went to Daicos at the first bounce.
Just as predictably, there were several spot-fires, and the umpires paid a number of frees for off-the-ball infringements.
St Kilda drew first blood, but Collingwood quickly steadied and took a two-goal lead at quarter-time.
The Saints lost clearances 10-5 in the opening quarter and won that critical stat 16-7 in the second as they kept pace with the Magpies.
St Kilda drew level early in the third quarter, before the Magpies kicked the last three goals of the term.
In-form Magpies small forward Jamie Elliott, who only had three disposals in the first half, kicked the last two of those goals in a crucial cameo.
But the Saints were not done. Trailing by 21 points, they surged with two goals to keep the pressure on Collingwood.
Then Daicos, despite pressure from Windhager, snapped a superb goal to relieve the pressure, and Brody Mihocek put through another a couple of minutes later to kill off St Kilda’s impressive challenge.
Speedy Saints defender Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera racked a game-high 35 possessions, while teammate Mason Wood kicked three goals.
Daicos’ older brother Josh also had 30 possessions and, like Wanganeen-Milera, gave his side plenty of drive off half-back.
– With AAP