Moneyball trade column: Collingwood father-son Nick Daicos could the No.1 pick in 2021 draft
He was in trade talks last year. Now Brad Crouch is a free agent and his club is set for a long rebuild. What does that mean for his future? Plus, the latest trade buzz from around the league.
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Matthew Nicks says Brad Crouch and the Crows will make a responsible decision on his free agency future together but concedes it isn’t certain to be at Adelaide.
The first-year Adelaide senior coach says Crouch is totally invested in the club’s situation as they attempt to turn around an inconsistent and winless start to the season.
If a rival offered a massive free agency deal to the reigning best-and-fairest winner the Crows might secure a compensation pick within the top handful of overall picks in an exceptional draft.
But Nicks says instead of a contract standoff, both parties will work together on the best outcome for the elite ball-winning midfielder from Victoria.
“We are doing a lot of work with Brad around exactly what is best for him and how he can play his best footy,” he told the Herald Sun.
“We need Brad to be playing his best footy, the same as Matt Crouch and Rory Sloane. We know there has been a lot of talk about his contract and those kinds of things and he’s a high-end player. Towards the end of last year before I signed on there was a lot of talk about him going to the Gold Coast for millions.
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“And we totally understand what it’s about, he’s a good player coming into free agency. He has been amazing with us and we are putting a lot of work around what is the best for him and how he fits into the side to make him better.
“At this point in time we can’t have discussions on contracts and we don’t know the rules around the salary cap so a lot will be put on hold and that’s probably a positive so he can put his head down and go to work but if it wasn’t the case we would have worked towards something.
“In the end we will make a decision between the two of us, the club and Brad, that is best for both parties and if he feels at that time it’s best for him to move on, we will do what we can for both parties to benefit. At this point in time he is a really important part of what we are doing and he’s super invested. It gets tougher when we are losing games but we have stuck tight and the external noise is nothing like what is going on inside.”
PIES SET FOR HUGE RAFT WIN
Father-son pick Nick Daicos wowed recruiters at the Connors Sports private camp in Sorrento on Thursday as a former Pies recruiter anointed him as next year’s No.1 pick.
It comes with his older brother Josh out of contract and looking to sign a new deal in coming months after an extremely impressive start to the season.
Nick Daicos is taller than his brother Josh and while Pies fans will have to wait another year for him, Pies recruiter Matt Rendell said of him this week: “He is as good a junior as I have seen play the game”.
One industry figure said simply of him: “He is a freak”.
Oakleigh Chargers mid Daicos held his own alongside Matt Rowell for Carey Grammar last year despite being two years his junior and will round out a star-studded Pies midfield.
Clubs are already raving about this year’s draft and its full complement of different types of players, but believe next year could be another superdraft.
At the Connors Sports camp on Thursday recruiters watched 2020 and 2021 aspirants in an academy-style session of two hours involving skills and football craft.
Now after Peter Daicos made his name as one of the club’s most beloved champions, the Pies will have Tyler and Cal Brown and soon Nick and Josh Daicos.
Josh Daicos has started the season with some slashing displays including a 24 possession contest in the draw against Richmond.
Matt Rendell left Collingwood as part of the shutdown but couldn’t have been more effusive about Nick Daicos on SEN this week.
“He is as good a junior as I have seen play the game,” he said.
“He is right up there, he played with Rowell and (Noah) Anderson for Carey and more than held his own and that’s two years younger than them, he is a really good player.
“He is taller and can mark the ball and seems to play more midfield, he is taller than Josh.
“So I would say right here right now he goes number one but it’s a cracking top 10 next year.
“If he’s not in the top three I will give the game away, it’s something for the Collingwood people to look forward to. Someone will bid in the top five and (the Pies) know that. You can’t hide him away, he’s too good a player.”
ANDERSON SET TO STAY AT SUNS
The good news keeps coming for Gold Coast on the prized contract front.
On the back of Matt Rowell’s new deal at the Suns, Moneyball can reveal his good mate and the No.2 pick in last year’s draft Noah Anderson will follow suit.
The pair have both agreed to two-year extensions, keeping them at the club until the end of 2023.
The contracts will be formalised as soon as the league’s player deal freeze ends.
Rowell has extraordinarily surged into Brownlow Medal contention after three-straight best on ground performances and will take on one of his footy idol’s Joel Selwood in his 300th game at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.
But Anderson’s excellent form hasn’t gone unnoticed at the Suns either with the midfield-forward quickly emerging as a dangerous playmaker.
He has been likened to former Richmond and Greater Western Sydney jet Brett Deledio.
Hawthorn was linked to Anderson because his father, Dean, won two premierships at Waverley.
But all the main suggests Anderson and Rowell are loving the new chapter at the Suns and are a backbone of the club’s resurgence.
DUNSTAN COULD BE PUSHED OUT OF SAINTS
St Kilda’s Luke Dunstan could be a victim of the club’s midfield makeover.
The Saints went in a new speedy direction with its midfield injecting Zak Jones and Brad Hill over last year’s exchange period.
Dunstan, 25, was given a game in Round 1 but was dropped for Rounds 2 and 3, and then tore his pectoral muscle in a practice match last weekend.
He is set to miss the bulk of the season and is expected to loom large for rival clubs looking for an accomplished inside midfielder.
From South Australia, the clearance winner could appeal to Port Adelaide or Adelaide in the event Ollie Wines, Sam Powell-Pepper or Matt and Brad Crouch consider a fresh start.
BOMBER’S BIG PAY DAY
Andrew McGrath is set for a nice pay rise this year.
The No.1 draft pick has graduated into a full-time midfielder and will play a crucial role in the absence of Dyson Heppell’s ankle injury this season.
The Brighton Grammar product is seen as future captain material at the Bombers and will deserve a pleasant increase when he inks an extension later this season.
McGrath, 22, polled three coaches votes in the first two games of the season coming off a career-best year last year finishing sixth in the best and fairest.
LOBB’S BIG SWITCH
ONE of the league’s gun big men has switched management companies.
Fremantle ruck-forward Rory Lobb has departed TLA for Colin Young’s Corporate Sports Australia.
Lobb signed a handsome four-year deal at Fremantle when he left GWS Giants.
NEW DEAL FOR CHARLIE
Expect to see Charlie Cameron sign a contract extension
The Lions are comfortable the electric forward will recommit to a new deal sometime this year.
Not that there’s any hurry. Cameron’s deal expires next season.
DIXON COULD GET BIG PAY RISE
Charlie Dixon is playing himself into a fat old pay rise as he plays football in the manner that is wowing old-school judges like Wayne Carey.
But Port Adelaide isn’t the only club wondering if it will be allowed to spend the salary cap money it has “banked” in recent years.
Under that arrangement clubs like Carlton and the Power, who spend less than 100 per cent of the salary cap, can use that cash the next year to pay overs.
For the Power it’s as much as $700,000 while the Blues will also hope to spend that extra cash in 2021 given they have saved it in the previous two years.
But clubs are nervous about the salary cap crunch ahead and what it will mean for clubs with extra cap space and whether they can use the whole portion.
St Kilda, Carlton and North Melbourne are the Victorian clubs seen as ready to pay up.
Dixon comes out of contract this year and is the only big Port Adelaide priority signing after Robbie Gray was tucked away.
The Power won’t mind paying up for a monster season because it will mean he has maintained the rage and likely taken them deep into the finals after injury and form issues in recent seasons.
BIG DRAFT CALL LOOMING ON GUN YOUNGSTER
Western Bulldogs might have to match a bid for star junior Jamarra Ugle-Hagan just so rivals aren’t seen as the club that let him get away.
Ugle-Hagan is seen as the next big thing in football as an electric marking forward, with Luke Beveridge already disgruntled that clubs believe the Dogs unfairly get access to the next generation academy player at a discount.
Teams have customarily shied away from bidding for father-son and academy players like GWS mid Tom Green in the top few picks of the draft, with Green drifting to 10 and Nick Blakey also sliding to pick 10.
Teams with top five picks who know bids will be matched by a rival don’t want to be seen as landing a player at their club with their second preference.
But with Ugle-Hagan seen as a once-in-a-generation talent, will clubs want to be the team that overlooked a Buddy Franklin-type player, even if they know the Dogs will match it?
At least when we get to the national draft in December it will be a flurry of action, with around 15 of the 30 first selections academy or father-son prospects.
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Originally published as Moneyball trade column: Collingwood father-son Nick Daicos could the No.1 pick in 2021 draft