Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos has continued building his tremendous legacy at just 20-years-old as the Pies booked their place in the AFL Grand Final with a one-point win over the GWS Giants.
Daicos, who is the hot favourite to win the Brownlow Medal for the competition’s best and fairest in just his second year at AFL level, again starred with 28 disposals in the 8.10 (58) to 8.9 (57) triumph.
His haul was second only on the Magpies to Jordan De Goey’s equal game-high 34 — and he gained 520m with the ball and made four tackles.
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And while he’s proven a beast when it matters most, Daicos also showed his true colours after the siren blew.
As Collingwood celebrated the victory and his teammates embraced, Daicos was filmed running over to devastated Giants captain Toby Greene.
Greene was kneeling on the turf after the painful loss, when Daicos put his arm around the All-Australian captain and embraced him.
It was a touching moment as the packed and Collingwood-heavy MCG crowd went absolutely berserk as “Good Old Collingwood Forever” rang out.
The pair had enjoyed a running battle all night, typified by a controversial third quarter tackle which appeared high from Daicos on Greene but went unpunished.
The Pies had just kicked five of six goals to get in front when Greene was trying to get the ball inside 50 on the right wing.
Daicos had other ideas, attempting to tackle Greene in an effort that slipped high as the GWS captain ducked.
It’s fair to say Giants fans on social media were not happy.
It was a brutal moment for the Giants, as Greene would have had a free from about 50m out with a chance to level the game at 49-all.
Speaking to Channel 7 in the rooms after the loss, Greene was emotional.
“Hard to reflect on the season when you get that close,” he said. “Yeah, that one hurts, that one really hurts.”
Greene said that he hadn’t addressed the team yet but that the team would “come together and come back stronger”.
He agreed there were plenty of positives to take out of the year as the Giants went from 16th on the ladder to a point from the Grand Final, but it was still too raw.
”It’s been an awesome year but once you get this close, you want to go on and win it,” Greene said.
“We felt like we were good enough to.
“Hats off to Collingwood — they were tough tonight. Flip of a coin really in the end. It just hurts.”
Originally published as ‘Game respects game’: Nick Daicos’ class act to Toby Greene
