Nick Daicos 50 games: How Collingwood’s budding superstar compares to the greats

Nick Daicos has a CV that is hard to fathom for a 21-year old in the modern era, but where does he stand compared to his peers? Ahead of game 50, we look at the Pie’s standing among the greats.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 07: Nick Daicos of the Magpies celebrates a goal during the 2023 AFL Round 17 match between the Western Bulldogs and the Collingwood Magpies at Marvel Stadium on July 7, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

When the Pies battle the Saints on Thursday night, they’ll not only be looking for their first win of 2024, but also looking to celebrate Nick Daicos’ 50th game in style.

It’s odd to reflect on a career that is truly just starting, yet the Collingwood superstar has given the footy world so much in just over two seasons, it’s not wrong to compare him with the very best at his age.

Names like Chris Judd, Joel Selwood, Haydn Bunton and John Coleman immediately spring to mind when we consider the best players in history in their first 50 games.

By game 50, Judd had come of age when he destroyed the three-time premiers Brisbane on the hallowed Gabba with a herculean effort.

Selwood had won the Rising Star, played a key role in a dominant premiership team, then was just as important to a team that lost one game in 2008, before being beaten at the final hurdle.

Bunton had two Brownlows before he raised the bat for fifty games.

Coleman, well, it’s hard to truly describe a guy who kicked 200 goals before he hit the 50-game mark.

Yet somehow, both the numbers and the all-too-powerful eye test stack up remarkably well for the Pies star.

Given we can’t truly compare him to some of the greats of the 1900s, 2000s and 2010s, what about those he shares the field with now?

Considered the best in the game, Marcus Bontempelli had shown us his freakish potential by game 50, yet his side hadn’t hit the heights of Craig McRae’s Pies.

Nick Daicos has made one of the greatest starts to an AFL career in history. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

History tells us that changed quickly afterwards.

Or Clayton Oliver, as prolific a ball-winner from an early age as we have seen, 50 games in, the Magpie has him covered.

Champion Data statistics show through fifty games the ball-magnet is already first in disposals, second in uncontested possessions and well clear of Oliver who is second in ranking points.

Daicos, as of right now, has a CV that stands alone for someone his age.

The phenom is a Rising Star winner, has a premiership medal to flaunt and would be the reigning Brownlow medallist if not for Finn Maginness some would say.

Given only players from two teams have the chance to claim the award, it holds less weight, yet his Anzac Day performance in 2023 will likely be the Judd-like moment we recall when it’s time to write the full story on a potentially legendary career.

Perhaps however, the most interesting comparison centres around his premiership teammate, arguably the greatest Magpie over the modern era in Scott Pendlebury.

The longevity may be hard to match, but Daicos has him well covered in all aspects to start their respective careers.

With Pendlebury now the leading disposal winner in VFL/AFL history, like LeBron James passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record, that achievement may change hands, but it will be done so in the same jersey.

It’s clear we can’t say Daicos is definitively greater than all those names presented, but it might be fair to say, if we consider greatness as a race, the young Magpie has stormed out of the blocks, leaving his peers, and perhaps even his heroes in the dust.