Mick Malthouse on the upcoming stars that will be the future of the game

Mick Malthouse has lauded Pies star Nick Daicos as the leader of the future generation of stars. But the young gun is still yet to face a true test in the AFL, which no doubt is on the horizon.

Nick Daicos would be leading the voting in virtually every football award, including the Brownlow Medal. And, in just his second year, he is only going to get better. But his biggest challenge is yet to come.

Rarely does a first or second-year player come into a team and make a substantial difference, both physically and mentally. Daicos has done that. Against a backdrop of scrutiny and high expectation, he has delivered with an abundance of talent, motivation and an honest work ethic.

The younger of the Daicos boys has certainly made Collingwood a better side (so too has Josh Daicos). For every possession, 85 per cent of them will find a Magpie target. That is an unbelievable stat. Everything about Nick Daicos is elite. And incidentally, he is one of the most delightful young men you would ever meet – clean cut and doesn’t argue with the umpires.

It’s easier for a very good player like Nick to play in a very good team like Collingwood, because he’s not the focal point all the time, especially with players like Scott Pendlebury, Taylor Adams, Steele Sidebottom, and Jordan De Goey around him.

Nick Daicos. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

So far there has been very little interest from opposition clubs in tagging him. But there will be a coach soon enough who acknowledges that nearly every time Daicos touches the ball he puts it into a favourable position for Collingwood, and that any kind of disruption to his number of disposals or their quality needs to be instigated to limit his effectiveness.

That will be the 20-year-old’s test.

But it will take a very dedicated and smart operator to reduce his effectiveness. I doubt whether it will be this player, but it would need to be a Mark Blicavs-type of tagger with endurance, speed, concentration and the ability to play all day, every minute dedicated to that cause. Good luck.

We are fortunate to have several young players in their first or second years who show enormous ability. Some will take time to find their feet.

Clearly Daicos was physically and mentally mature enough to take on the role of AFL player, some take longer, especially the taller players who need body maturity. Sam Darcy is going be a superstar for the Western Bulldogs.

Sam Darcy. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

We know Darcy dominated junior football, and sometimes the expectation then is that he will blend straight into AFL football. But that’s not always the case. Taller, leaner players are more easily out-positioned by bigger, heavier opponents. Darcy, 19, will have breakout games and kick a few goals, and at his height (208cm) may have some ruck time. But at only 97kg he is still growing and still deciding if he is a key back or a key forward.

Darcy reminds me a lot of three-time All-Australian Paul Salmon, who also took time to fill out and find the right position. At his best he was almost impossible to stop in the forward line with wonderful finishing power.

Darcy’s greatest asset is his around-the-ground play, his intercept marking and ball use.

He’s in a team that is caught between: are they good enough or are they just a couple of good players short? But he is fortunate to be led by a brilliant captain in Marcus Bontempelli, and also lucky that Tim English is playing strongly in the ruck to allow Darcy to play at either end of the ground without the extra burden of too much ruck work.

Darcy’s best is yet to come, that’s certain.

Will Ashcroft at the Brisbane Lions has burst on to the scene and is mentioned in the same breath as Daicos. The father-son connection means comparisons were always going to be made. Ashcroft, too, is fortunate that is he is playing in a very talented side which makes it easier to blend in from inside and outside the centre square. Lachie Neale is the Lions’ No.1 midfielder and Hugh McCluggage his backup.

Ashcroft, 18, has all the attributes to be a superstar, but his stats have been a bit wobbly.

Will Ashcroft. (Photo by Matt King/AFL Photos/Getty Images)

Chris Fagan, however, will have patience with him, as Brisbane’s expectations are realistic.

Unlike the worrying expectations on Jason Horne-Francis at North Melbourne last year: if you play well, we will win games of football. It certainly wasn’t David Noble loading him up, it was the public and the media, and Horne-Francis became a victim of that.

Horne-Francis is enjoying a settling-in time with Port Adelaide and, thankfully, a coach like Ken Hinkley who unloads the pressure and expectations and allows him to blend in with Travis Boak, Zak Butters, Connor Rozee and Ollie Wines, and therefore give the kid a chance to develop.

Because it’s harder when you’re playing at a weaker club. Harry Sheezel, who started this season brilliantly, came back to earth with a thud last weekend when tagged by Gold Coast’s Nick Holman. For a player to have his stats reduced by 75 per cent, after averaging close to 30 disposals a game, shows you they are human. These are young kids and they will have their highs and lows.

Sheezel is only 18 and would have been so confident going into that game against the Suns, and to have a very tough player like Holman all over him, was a wake-up to the opposition homework already being done on him. The template has now been set and he will have to get used to it and adjust to that type of attack. But he will get better because of it, too.

The interest will be how North’s supporters temper their expectations. Sheezel will be a very good player, but he will also have ups and downs in his early years.

Harry Sheezel. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The five players mentioned were drafted in the past two years. To give some context, look at Matt Rowell from Gold Coast – drafted in 2019 – and Sam Walsh from Carlton who was drafted in 2018. Both players have been outstanding for their clubs, but each has suffered injuries from being thrust into the big-bodied heavy traffic from day one. Not all clubs have the luxury of protecting young draftees. Walsh and Rowell have had some ripping games and some poor games, but they are the future backbone of their clubs, not just because of the type of players, but the type of people they are – solid, upstanding young men.

Look at the 2020 draft and the No.1 and No.2 two kids, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and Riley Thilthorpe. The expectations of them were unrealistic. How they managed to stay positive is a credit to the Bulldogs and Adelaide, respectively. There is still a long way to go to be deemed game-changing players, but they have taken their first steps, in their third year, and they are realising their potential.

There is rarely a missed opportunity to curtail a player’s influence on a game. Nick Daicos seems invincible but that can only last so long. Sheezel and Ashcroft lasted five weeks before it was identified they had to be stopped. If they are gaining knowledge, being given the opportunity to grow into their bodies, have support from a wonderful commodity in their teammates, and some public understanding, these kids will be the future of our game.