AFL 2023: Deep dive into Collingwood’s loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba
Chris Judd won a Brownlow in his third season, but Nick Daicos might just beat him and win it in his second. And a comparison between the pair underlines exactly why.
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Collingwood was firming as a premiership fancy on the back of its impressive 3-0 start to the season.
But a “brave” Brisbane showed that Craig McRae’s side is far from unbeatable.
As much as the Magpies’ lack of a recognised ruckman was an issue, the side still managed to score more points than its opposition from stoppages.
The biggest difference between the two teams was the Lions’ ability to kick eight goals to two from turnovers between the two 50m arcs.
Collingwood plays an aggressive press defensively and looks to flood numbers around the contest and chain the ball out by hand after it has won that.
However, Brisbane managed to hold its own in the contest side of the game and defensively set up to pick off many of those Collingwood chains.
“I think in the end tonight, the reason we won the game was because we were brave enough to come forward and get some intercepts on their handball chains and we were able to score off those,” Lions coach Chris Fagan said.
“I think that’s probably the main reason. You’ve got to do that well against them. If you retreat they’ll just run straight through you.”
When Brisbane did win the ball back on those turnovers, it took off with speed and was often able to find players in space over the back of what was then an out-of-position Collingwood defence.
The other thing that the home side did well was take its opportunities going forward.
In the first three rounds, Brisbane had scored a goal from just 21.8 per cent of its inside-50 entries, ranking it 11th in the competition.
Against the Magpies, Fagan’s side went at 33.3 per cent as it kicked 18 goals from 54 entries.
The Magpies had two more scoring shots for the night but finished 33 points behind on the scoreboard.
“They never stop trying to score,” Fagan said.
That’s true – and therefore if you don’t take your chances you aren’t going to win.
ARE WE SEEING ‘CHARLIE’ DAICOS?
Before Nick Daicos was selected at pick 4 in the 2021 national draft, one veteran recruiter from a rival club said he was the best junior footballer that he had seen since Chris Judd.
Raps don’t come much bigger than that.
Taken at pick 3 in the 2001 ‘Super Draft’, Judd played all but one game for West Coast in his debut season and went on to win his first Brownlow Medal at the age of 20 in just his third year at AFL level.
Nick Daicos might just beat Judd to a ‘Charlie’ and pick one up in his second season – also at age 20.
After what had already been a blistering start to the year, the son of a gun should have more Brownlow Medal votes coming his way after racking up 38 disposals, five clearances, 12 score involvements and two goals against Brisbane on Friday night.
While Charlie Cameron (six goals) and Cam Rayner (four goals) are also likely to be in the votes, Daicos finished as the highest-rated player on the ground with 151 KFC SuperCoach ranking points.
This from a player who had already entered the game as the Brownlow Medal favourite – quite remarkable given he was featuring in just his 29th game.
Across Judd’s first 29 games at AFL level, he averaged 16.2 disposals and kicked 30 goals through the midfield.
From Daicos’ first 29 games at AFL level, he is averaging 27 disposals and has kicked 11 goals – primarily playing as a defender.
Opposition teams have put work into the 2022 AFL Rising Star this year, given how damaging he can be with ball in hand.
He hits difficult kicks that others don’t even attempt and has recorded the equal-most score involvements of any Collingwood player over the first four weeks with 36, alongside Scott Pendlebury.
However, as much as opposition sides want to restrict that, they are struggling to curb his influence – in any area of the ground.
After starting in defence against Brisbane on Friday night, Daicos spent time through the midfield and was then thrown forward as coach Craig McRae searched for a spark.
“He’s a talented player. We want to put him in positions where he makes us better,” McRae said.
“If the game’s there to be chased, we’ll probably put Nick in areas where he can help us chase it.
“He’s a terrific talent and tonight he showed that again.”
COMPLETE CAM
He was billed as a midfielder-forward type in a similar mould to Richmond superstar Dustin Martin before he was selected with the prized No. 1 pick in the 2018 national draft.
But after an inconsistent 2022 season as a forward, Brisbane’s Cam Rayner spent the summer training with the defenders and played the first three games of the year as a rebounding halfback.
That experiment is officially over – at least for now.
After the Lions’ forward line failed to fire against the Western Bulldogs in Round 3, coach Chris Fagan turned to Rayner told him he would be returning to the attacking end against Collingwood.
“Fages spoke to me during the week and just said to go and play my natural footy and try and complement the boys down there,” Rayner said on Fox Footy.
The 23-year-old didn’t just “complement” the home side’s forward line on Friday night.
He spearheaded it.
From 17 disposals for the night, Rayner recorded 10 score involvements.
He kicked 4.1 of his own, along with logging three direct goal assists.
Rayner created a contest in the air and took a couple of big contested marks, was powerful and explosive in his movements at ground level and was selfless in the way he gave off the footy to teammates in better positions throughout the night.
“I’ve trained really hard, even over the pre-season playing down in the backline,” Rayner said.
“But forward is probably the role that comes natural to me.”
Rayner’s four goals was an equal career-high and he finished with 121 KFC SuperCoach ranking points — the second-highest rated game of his career.
“It was exciting to see him do so well,” Fagan said.
“He’s actually been pretty good down back. But I just felt we needed his energy tonight in the forward line and he brings a lot of that. Four goals was a pretty good result. He just adds another element to our forward line and we know we can also throw him into the midfield.”
The Lions will be hoping a new bar was set with this performance, rather than it being another flash in the pan.
WHAT PIES’ 51-MINUTE DROUGHT REVEALED AS CRACKS EXPOSED
Collingwood has been left exposed by its depleted ruck stocks as the early-season premiership fancies were brought back to earth by a red-hot Brisbane last night.
The Lions pulled off a 33-point win in the traditional Easter Thursday clash at the Gabba, the victory set up by a stunning run of 10 unanswered goals during the second and third quarters.
The Magpies went 51 minutes without a goal during that period.
After Darcy Cameron went down with a knee injury against Richmond last week, Collingwood was left without a designated ruckman to take into the match.
Mason Cox (Hematoma) is also sidelined, forcing coach Craig McRae to use a makeshift ruck set-up which struggled.
Brisbane’s Oscar McInerney dominated against Dan McStay, Ash Johnson and Billy Frampton.
Veteran midfielder Scott Pendlebury even took a centre bounce ruck contest.
McInerney alone had 43 hit-outs for the game, with Collingwood combining for just 23 in total.
“I’ve got the simplest role in footy and that’s just making a contest,” McInerney said after the game.
“I don’t have any skills. I just create contest for the little fellas and we’ve got blokes like Charlie (Cameron), Zac Bailey. They can get after it.
“They’re just an incredible stoppage side. We’ve seen their numbers all year. Sometimes you’ve just got to play what’s in front of you.”
The Magpies gave away two free kicks from the centre bounce during the second quarter for starting position infringements, amid confusion of who was supposed to be in the ruck.
Brisbane capitalised on Collingwood’s ruck woes and were able to score from their stoppage work throughout the night better than they had in previous weeks.
While the Magpies had three more inside 50s and two more scoring shots, the Lions used the ball with purpose and precision going forward and continually found space over the back of the Collingwood defence, particularly during their 10-goal hot streak.
Charlie Cameron finished with an equal career-high six goals as Brisbane’s leading goalkicker for the night.
Joe Daniher refused a request to speak to host broadcaster Channel 7 after the game, following an improved performance.
After being criticised for kicking 0.4 against the Western Bulldogs the previous week, Daniher finished the match with 20 disposals, six marks and two goals as part of a forward line that functioned far better.
Lions coach Chris Fagan had gone into bat for Daniher during the week after some commentators had been critical of his performance against the Bulldogs.
“Last week he kicks 0.4 and suddenly it’s ‘Let’s Pick on Joey Daniher Week’,” Fagan said.
“He’s not the only one up there. We need all of our other tall forwards to be playing a little bit better and our forward line in general wasn’t at its best last week.”
No. 1 draft pick Cam Rayner was also prolific with four goals after being shifted back to the forward line following a short-lived experiment as a defender.
Brisbane’s final score of 18.8 (116) was the highest kicked against Collingwood since Round 22, 2021.
It was only the fourth time under Craig McRae that the Magpies had conceded more than 100 points.
The loss wiped 27.2 points off Collingwood’s ladder percentage.
Now sitting 3-1, the Magpies face games against St Kilda and Essendon over the next two weeks.
MARCO MONTEVERDE’S SCOREBOARD
Lions 3.2 (20), 9.4 (58), 14.6 (90), 18.8 (116)
Magpies 5.3 (33), 5.6 (36), 8.12 (60), 11.17 (83)
GOALS
Lions: Cameron 6, Rayner 4, Daniher 2, Hipwood 2, Wilmot, Berry, Prior, Zorko
Magpies: Mihocek 3, Hill 2, N Daicos 2, Adams, Johnson, Crisp, De Goey
BEST
Lions: Rayner, Cameron, Ashcroft, Dunkley, Neale
Magpies: N Daicos, Mihocek, Quaynor, Mitchell, Pendlebury
3-2-1 VOTES:
3. Cam Rayner (Lions)
2. Charlie Cameron (Lions)
1. Nick Daicos (Collingwood)
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Originally published as AFL 2023: Deep dive into Collingwood’s loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba
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