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“He’s ready: Star Magpie ready for captaincy evolution
Andrew Slevison • April 18th, 2025 9:44 am
Nick Daicos is ready to take over as Collingwood captain.
That is the opinion of Kane Cornes who believes the 22-year-old is the perfect candidate to replace premiership leader Darcy Moore.
Daicos was simply irresistible with 38 disposals, 12 score involvements, eight clearances, six inside 50s and a goal in Thursday night’s 52-point win over Brisbane at the Gabba.
His sublime performance and outstanding leadership suggests to Cornes that even at his youthful age, Daicos is primed to become the next Magpies skipper as soon as next year.
“There was a look about him last night in terms of his body language when he was on the interchange bench and he was celebrating and fist-pumping,” Cornes said on SEN’s Fireball.
“There was a real ‘F you’ attitude. I hadn’t seen that killer instinct. There was feeling in the game and for large portions of the first half it was closer than the end result was.
“It was on there for a bit, there was (Brayden) Maynard, there were free kicks off the ball, and he was as animated as I’ve seen.
“It had me thinking: How long until he is captain of this team? Is it next year?
“I just watched him last night and thought, ‘You are the captain of this team’. When is the right time to pull the trigger on that?
“That will be his next and maybe only challenge. He looked like captain all over him last night. Next year. He’s ready now.
“The way that he speaks, the way that he presents, he’s the face of this club. Moore speaks well, but if you’re watching these two play, he’s the captain.”
David King was gushing in his praise of the two-time All-Australian and reigning Copeland Trophy winner who was elevated as co-vice captain earlier this year.
But he doesn’t believe there is any rush for the Pies to make a captaincy change anytime soon.
“We need to have a chat about Daicos. What he did last night was just ridiculous,” King said.
“He is a disaster (for opposition coaches) to try and plan against. When he drops the hammer and goes, there isn’t a player in the comp that can go with him.
“That centre bounce break where he took the p--s as he straightened up and drove it long, that was a ‘you can’t go with me’. That was more than one passage of play, that was a statement. ‘I know you can’t travel the way I’m going’.
“The captaincy is there for him whenever he’s ready. But there’s no hurry with Darcy (Moore).”
Daicos is averaging 30.8 disposals across six matches in 2025 as well as 6.8 clearances, 5.7 inside 50s and 3.8 tackles.
The top-of-the-table Pies will be looking for six wins in a row when they meet Essendon in the Anzac Day blockbuster at the MCG next Friday.
