Jordan De Goey, Nick Daicos sound ominous warning for the rest of the AFL
Collingwood are heading into the 2024 season healthy and firing, but that means fringe players are set for more selection pain as they attempt to displace some premiership heroes.
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As Jordan De Goey’s violent “don’t-argue” jolted John Noble onto his backside, premiership coach Craig McRae cheered and clapped his approval.
For De Goey it was a perfect statement of intent about his hunger for back-to-back flags.
Chiselled and in peak shape after the best pre-season of his career, De Goey bounced around in Collingwood’s three-hour training session and match simulation doing as he pleased.
De Goey and Nick Daicos got leather-poisoning in the three stanzas of match simulation and Goey’s team won the Grand Final of a territory-based drill conducted all summer involving teams moving the ball with only handball from end to end.
As the players milled around in celebration as De Goey’s team took down the Nick Daicos side, coach Brendon Bolton jokingly awarded De Goey the Norm Smith Medal for his performance.
And yet if Bolton was having a laugh with his star midfielder, De Goey’s peak fitness and Nick Daicos permanent move into the midfield does beg one important question.
Just how good will Collingwood be if De Goey puts together a full season playing alongside footy’s best and most creative player in Daicos?
Because a Collingwood side with barely an injury and with a host of players running personal bests will already take a heck of a lot of stopping this season without De Goey going to the next level.
COLLINGWOOD MATCH SIMULATION
Craig McRae is a killjoy.
As the Pies’ ‘probables’ easily beat a ‘possibles’ team ahead of next Wednesday’s official intra-club, it was apparent he does not want a repeat of the Grand Final’s defining play.
In that contest it was a Scott Pendlebury up-and-under that saw Daicos rove the pack at half forward then fire a no-look handball to De Goey from mid-air for the go-ahead goal.
Yet on Friday McRae continually preached a game-plan involving lightning handball through the corridor that avoided one-on-one contests at half forward at almost any cost.
That game plan will allow the vision, run and overlap of Daicos and De Goey to come to the fore - and minimise the loss of power forward Dan McStay.
De Goey doesn’t need help winning the football but with Daicos as his willing accomplice the pair will create havoc if given time and space.
McRae’s urgent message to Jamie Elliott mid-match was to use the extra numbers through the midfield instead of kick to contests as the Pies try to create uncontested chains from end to end.
Elliot, Daicos and De Goey combined in a quickfire exchange of handballs despite opposition pressure and the result was a 25 metre laces-out pass from half forward to Mihocek.
Try stopping that one as an opposing full back.
There will be times where elite rivals will use extreme pressure to stop those bursts but when Collingwood gets hold of middling rivals they will be a sight to behold.
McStay (ACL tear) is one of the few Pies sidelined with Josh Daicos completing some match sim and drills but also getting work on his lower leg in the calf/achilles region as he recovers from nerve and muscle pain.
Steele Sidebottom (illness) was absent and Nathan Murphy did run-throughs instead of match simulation but otherwise the Pies are a picture of health with Brody Mihocek (calf), Brayden Maynard (shoulder) and Jakob Ryan (leg bone bruising) all back in full training.
COMPETITION FOR SPOTS
In the probables v possibles game midfielder Fin Macrae again racked up plenty of football as ruck-tall Nathan Kreuger hauled in a pair of strong early marks.
Yet the list’s fitness means the likes of Kreuger, Macrae and Noble might have to turf out premiership players to win early-season spots.
Mid-sized forward Reef McInnes started alongside Mihocek in the black ‘probables’ team, while Noble played back in the ‘probables’ team.
With Isaac Quaynor and Brayden Maynard locks as medium-sized defenders he might have to eclipse Will Hoskin-Elliott to rebound from his pre-finals dropping.
Patrick Lipinski racked up countless possessions in the probables team and isn’t going anywhere despite some external question marks about his place in the Grand Final team after a shaky finals series until the Lions clash.
While there is a spot to fill after Taylor Adams and Jack Ginnivan’s departure Lachie Schultz has had an excellent no-fuss summer and McRae was again keen to see Beau McCreery getting centre-square minutes in the match sim portion of training.
So while Macrae, Jakob Ryan, Ed Allan, Kreuger, defender Charlie Dean and ruck Aiden Begg will all be eyeing early-season chances it is hard to see many changes to the Grand Final side.
Collingwood takes on North Melbourne on Wednesday February 21 at Arden Street then Richmond on Tuesday February 27 ahead of their Zero Round clash against GWS.
Originally published as Jordan De Goey, Nick Daicos sound ominous warning for the rest of the AFL
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