AFL News: Damien Hardwick issues surprising message to rival coaches about Nick Daicos

Damien Hardwick urged his rival AFL Coaches must tag Nick Daicos when he plays Collingwood after the Suns survive another late Magpies comeback to win on Saturday. The Suns won 14.17 (101) to 13.12 (90), with Ben King scoring four goals to overcome the heroics of Daicos and Jordan de Goey.

Hardwick’s side led by 32 points at the end of the third quarter before Craig McRae’s men staged their latest dramatic comeback. Collingwood scored the next six goals to lead by one point with four minutes remaining – two weeks after coming back from 54 points behind to beat North Melbourne.

But the Suns weren’t about to become the latest victims of the reigning premiers, with Ben Long scoring a goal to put them back in front before Ben Ainsworth added another to seal the win. Speaking at his post-match press conference, Hardwick said every coach’s game plan against Collingwood should be to put strict labels on Daicos and De Goey.

“My God, they’re unbelievable, aren’t they, the way they come back,” the Suns coach said of Collingwood. “Hint to other coaches: when the game is like that, tag Daicos, tag de Goey.

“They’re incredible in the way they work together. We tried, but we couldn’t. But when we did get going, we responded very well.”

Collingwood looked destined for another fairy tale in the final quarter when De Goey (21 touches, two goals) brushed past a tackle and scored a heartbreaking goal from the pocket. Daicos (32 touches, two goals) then scored a goal from the center to make it four points, and Nathan Kreuger put the visitors ahead before the Suns found a response.

Hardwick decided not to bring Daicos on until late in the game, instead choosing to back his midfield to take on the Magpies. It held, with Noah Anderson (38 touches) everywhere, Sam Flanders (33, one goal) prolific, Touk Miller (31) busy and Matt Rowell in all his glory.

Craig McRae frustrated by Collingwood’s slow start

The win is the Suns’ eighth in eight home games this season and lifts them to ninth on the live standings, just one win behind the fifth-placed Magpies. Collingwood coach Craig McRae was perplexed by his team’s tendency to give themselves too much to do.

McRae said he was proud of his team’s hard-nosed attitude but frustrated that it continued to put itself in difficult positions. “It’s pretty obvious … you look at the intent, the pressure in the last quarter,” he said. “Why aren’t we delivering that in the second quarter?”

“You struggle with that sort of thing. Sixty-eight in the 50s is a lot to give up, we’d struggle to win any game. So there’s a natural emotion of ‘come on, let’s get busy’ .”

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The Pies were able to count on the return of De Goey and Scott Pendlebury, both injured, which is a positive sign for the future. Pendlebury touched the ball 18 times and scored a nice long-range goal, while Brody Mihocek scored two majors on his return.

“We have pieces of our puzzle that play different roles,” McRae mused. “Have you ever done a puzzle? The corners don’t fit in the middle and we’ve had a few. It’s nice to have some of our corners back so the other parts can be what they are. normally supposed to be.

However, forward Beau McCreery (calf) was replaced in the third quarter and Brayden Maynard suffered a nasty leg injury. John Noble also missed the final stages to complete a head injury assessment.

with AAP