AFL 2023: The money and contracts behind Collingwood’s star brothers Nick and Josh Daicos

Collingwood wingman Josh Daicos is set to turn his back on free agency with a big-money deal in the works. Brother Nick’s outlook is pretty good, too. Go inside their contracts.

Collingwood has kicked off talks on a new long-term contract for brilliant wingman Josh Daicos that will see him signing away his free agency rights at the end of 2024.

Daicos and his younger brother Nick have taken the competition by storm with consistently elite performances, with Nick locked away until the end of 2025.

Rising Star winner Nick has a variety of lucrative clauses in his contract for 2024-25 that mean a player who can earn just on $250,000 under the CBA this year will be richly rewarded next year.

The Herald Sun can reveal talks have already started between Collingwood and Josh’s manager Robbie D’Orazio on a deal for 24-year-old Josh that could see him paid as much as $700,000 in future years and kick in from 2025.

Josh Daicos is set to sign away his free agency rights. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

This season Josh Daicos has been at his linebreaking best as one of footy’s most damaging kicks.

He ranks elite for disposals, contested possessions, clearances, metres gained and scoreboard impact.

The blend of inside and outside has been ideal with Daicos averaging 5.5 score involvements and 3.5 inside 50s while also winning an average of 7.9 contested possessions a week.

A five-year deal would lock him away until the end of 2029 and mean the Pies’ emerging stars, including Jordan De Goey and Darcy Moore, are all locked in long-term.

Younger brother Nick’s deal is considered the greatest bargain in AFL football right now, on payment compared to performance output.

As part of the standard AFL player contract, a second-year player can only earn a fixed wage, with Daicos’ $140,000 base contract and $5000 per game return likely to net him just over $250,000 this season.

Last year, as a 2022 first-year player taken between pick 1-20, he was on a $105,000 base, received $4000 per match (25 games), received a $12,000 bonus for playing more than 11 games and received a $2500 bonus as the No.4 pick in the draft.

So under AFL rules he would have taken home $219,500 last season.

This year his base wage has risen to $140,000 because he played more than 17 games in 2022.

It means Daicos will have to wait until his third season until he becomes a regular fixture on the Herald Sun’s AFL Rich 100.

Nick Daicos could become one of the game’s richest players. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

While many third and fourth-year players taken in the top 10 of the draft broker contracts to pay them around $500,000 by their third season, the triggers in Daicos’ contract see him earning even more than that.

If he can win the Brownlow Medal and Collingwood’s best-and-fairest, it will escalate his wage and turn the clean-cut player from one of footy’s biggest clubs into a marketing force.

This year, sports apparel giant Nike signed him up as an ambassador, with that deal worth an annual five-figure sum.

Daicos is set to be one of footy’s richest players across his career given the heights he has hit from his first game but also because of the impending rise in the CBA.

Originally published as AFL 2023: The money and contracts behind Collingwood’s star brothers Nick and Josh Daicos