Magpies’ Midfield Mystery: Daicos’s Strange Second Half Shift and the Evolving Game
The decision to reposition star midfielder Nick Daicos to the members’ wing at the start of the second half on Saturday night was peculiar at the time. By the final siren, it had become a genuine puzzle. In what would prove to be the most critical period of the match, Daicos found himself on the periphery, far from the thick of the action where the game was being decided. He managed just six disposals in this crucial phase as Adelaide surged, kicking six goals to effectively seal the contest.
The introduction of new ruck rules has undeniably reshaped the dynamic of Australian Rules Football. The days of the ‘soft drop’ from contested ruck duels are gone, replaced by a more expansive hitting zone that allows rucks greater freedom to run and leap at the ball. This fundamental shift, in theory, should favour agile midfielders with explosive footwork, players like Daicos, who can weave through congestion and exploit open space. However, Daicos was stationed wide, adhering to the modern winger’s role of holding width, rather than being at the coalface of the centre square.
By the time Daicos was involved in his first centre bounce of the second half, the Crows had already registered three goals in under seven minutes. A slender three-point lead the Magpies held just before halftime had ballooned to almost four goals. While Daicos’s 20 centre bounce attendances were the highest for Collingwood, excluding ruckman Darcy Cameron, it was his absences from these crucial contests that proved most telling. The Crows’ clearances were clean, leading to sustained pressure and deep entries into their forward 50. Collingwood’s defence, seemingly undermanned and undersized, struggled to cope with the relentless onslaught.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae acknowledged that Daicos’s repositioning was a tactical adjustment made during the initial throw-up, a common occurrence where onballers switch roles and players can find themselves isolated. He admitted, however, that the strategy did not yield the desired results.
“That third quarter really shifted momentum, didn’t it?” McRae commented. “And I’ve been watching the first couple of rounds, and momentum shifts pretty quickly in this game now.”
The Magpies were comprehensively beaten at the centre clearance, losing the count 16-9. While this only translated to two goals directly from stoppages, the territorial advantage conceded had a significant impact, with Adelaide capitalising on turnovers to boot 11 goals. “To be honest, our centre-bounce stuff, we put a lot of time into it,” McRae conceded. “We’ve got more work to do.”
Despite not being directly tagged by the Crows, and amassing an impressive 33 possessions and a game-high 790 metres gained – placing him among Collingwood’s best, just behind a resurgent Dan Houston – Daicos was unable to influence the game as a true game-breaker. His positioning on the wing during critical junctures of the match undoubtedly hampered his impact.
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks expressed a degree of amusement when questioned about his reaction to seeing Daicos’s positional switch at halftime, especially given the midfielder’s dominant first-half performance. Nicks highlighted the evolving nature of the game under the new ruck rules.
“The big change in the game at the moment is a little more speed, and in your onballers a little bit more agility and the ability to jump on a loose ground ball,” Nicks observed. “The ball, because of this ruck rule, is getting more outside, rather than just, a bash and crash [style]. We come out of there, and we can go forward and play, and it’s hard for the opposition then to get numbers behind the footy. It’s a key to the game. I think some of the teams that are winning convincingly at the moment have got a real weapon through that centre bounce area, or a number of them.”
While Riley Thilthorpe didn’t dominate as expected against a Collingwood defence missing key figures like Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe, he proved to be the most dangerous forward on the ground, kicking three goals. Billy Frampton shared the tagging duties on Thilthorpe at times, but Isaac Quaynor, a running defender giving up significant height, also found himself matched up against the Adelaide tall at various points.
Coach McRae remains “hopeful” that Darcy Moore will be fit to face GWS next Friday, following hamstring “awareness” at training. However, given Moore’s history of soft-tissue injuries, a cautious approach to his recovery may be the most prudent course of action.
Despite their struggles in the midfield battle, the Magpies managed to generate more entries into their forward 50. However, their forward line lacked the necessary potency to convert these opportunities effectively. Jamie Elliott, who had minimal impact in the first half, touching the ball only twice by three-quarter time, became a crucial factor in Collingwood’s late surge with two goals. Tim Membrey, similarly ineffective for the first three quarters, had a fleeting cameo in the final term, while Dan McStay also contributed little. The combined output of Membrey and McStay, Collingwood’s two primary key forwards, has been a mere two goals across the opening two rounds.
Without consistent midfield dominance, this forward line is unlikely to strike fear into opposition defences. Their returns of 11 goals in each of their first two games stand in stark contrast to the century-plus scores being posted by perceived premiership contenders.
“We’re not getting much out of our keys [key forwards], that’s real, I’m not going to shy away from that,” McRae admitted. “We got work to do on that. I think there’s a connection breakdown at times. The second and the fourth quarter, we kicked nine goals of our 11 goals – then you say no [connection breakdown]. What about the last quarter? How’s that connection? I’d say pretty good.”
