Jaidyn Stephenson is the x-factor Collingwood has been searching for after five-goal performance

COLLINGWOOD young gun Jaidyn Stephenson might just be the x-factor player Nathan Buckley has been searching for with his pace, goal sense and ability to take the game on already paying dividends after the Magpies swooped on him at pick No.6.

Jaidyn Stephenson celebrates one of his five goals against the Crows. Picture: Sarah Reed

BARBECUE chicken pizzas, a five-goal haul in the famous No.35 Collingwood jumper, and the near-certainty of Magpies’ first back-to-back Rising Star weekly nominations.

Jaidyn Stephenson brings something different to the table, and that’s a good thing for Nathan Buckley.

For a team that has been crying out for an X-factor, the 19-year-old Magpie looks as if he is ready to take on the mantle.

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Sure, he has only played four games, and his coach was cautious about the expectation that will flow from his outstanding performance against the Crows in Collingwood’s 48-point raid across the border.

But Stephenson showed precisely the sort of dare and flair that has been so rare in black and white over the past few seasons.

Better still, he has genuine speed, something Buckley admitted was exactly what the Magpies required when they took him as No.6 in last year’s national draft.

Jaidyn Stephenson celebrates one of his five goals against the Crows. Picture: Sarah Reed

They desperately wanted him, even if a heart condition had turned some clubs off him, leaving the Magpies recruiting staff delighting in their good fortune when calling out his name.

Unless someone puts in a blinder across the weekend, Stephenson seems certain to follow his teammate Sam Murray as a consecutive Rising Star nomination on Monday.

That hasn’t happened at Collingwood since the Rising Star was instituted in 1993.

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Stephenson’s first three games gave a hint that he could be something special; his fourth game was off the charts for a Collingwood first-round pick.

It was the sort of performance from a first-year top 10 draftee that the Magpies haven’t really seen since a kid called Dale Thomas lit up the stage in his debut year in 2006.

Adam Treloar noted that on Friday night, saying on Channel 7: “He has that sort of awe about him, like when ‘Daisy’ Thomas first came to the club ... all the way through to the premiership year (2010).

Jaidyn Stephenson uses his pace to break away from David Mackay.

“(Stephenson) is just an excitement machine; he is good in the air, he is good on the ground. He only weighs about 40 kilos (the AFL 2018 Guide lists him as 77kg).

“He is going to be an awesome, awesome player, if he isn’t already.”

Treloar noted Stephenson’s own pre-match quirks: “He is very down to earth ... all I know is that he likes eating barbecue chicken pizzas the day before a game.”

If the young Magpie keeps playing that way, you wouldn’t blame Bucks for organising a Dominos delivery each week to the Holden Centre the day before matches.

“That’s not going to happen every week,” Buckley said of Stephenson’s breakout performance.

He knows there will be as many troughs as peaks in his debut season, but the early signs are good.

Jaidyn Stephenson celebrates a goal with Adam Treloar. Picture: Sarah Reed

“Jaidyn is lightly built but there’s elements of the game that he’s suited to and that open field play — a lot of his pressure is chasing pressure because he closes the distance so quickly,” Buckley said.

“He’s not unlike Cyril Rioli or Paul Puopolo for Hawthorn — you never know when they’re going to get you, and I think Stevo puts that pressure on.”

It was the first time a Magpies’ No.35 had kicked five goals since Alex Fasolo achieved that in his sixth game in 2011, the only year ‘Fas’ wore that number.

Before that, Peter Daicos, the man who made that Collingwood jumper famous, first booted five or more goals (he kicked sixth in three straight weeks) in his 28th game in 1981.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Stephenson said after the game. “I didn’t play great last week, so to come out and get back-to-back wins, is great and to contribute is really pleasing.”

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