Nick Daicos has had an unbelievable month.
After Collingwood started 0-3, they now have four wins and one draw from their last five games and much of that resurgence is thanks to Daicos.
The midfielder has averaged a goal, 28.75 disposals, five clearances and five tackles a game across the stretch from Round 5 to 8.
His form only seems to be trending upwards too, as he had his best performance of the 2024 season so far in the 85-79 win over Carlton on Friday, claiming best afield honours for his two-goal, 32-disposal, seven-clearance outing which also included a clutch match-winning goal.
David King has been blown away by his recent stretch as he begins to rate incredibly high on Champion Data’s ranking systems.
“He’s just unbelievable,” King said on SEN Mornings.
“I don't get sick of talking about him, but people get sick of me talking about him.
“Last year he was a phenomenon before the injury that cost him the Brownlow, he was just unreal.
“Talk about player ratings. To be an All-Australian player, you have to rate across the course of the season a rating of about 15.
“Good players go at 12 and bounce up and down a little bit with little swings … in the last four weeks, he's rating 26 rating points. That's in front of any other player for a month I would say.
“Nick Daicos has blown up their data.”
King says that the reason why Daicos is rating so high is his unique blend of ball winning and ball use.
The Magpie is amongst the best players in finding the footy including contested possessions, while his ball use has been by far the best in the competition over that month-long stretch.
King isn’t sure if we’ve ever seen a player combine those two traits as well as the 21-year-old.
“There are two main ways to look at it. Champion Data have broken this down to ball use and ball winning (the rating points),” King explained.
“After Round 4, he was ranked 75th in the comp for ball use. I thought, ‘That's really not him, he's better than that’.
“Since then, from Rounds 5 to 8, he's number one in the comp for ball use. 14 rating points just on ball use, the next best (Taylor Walker) is about 10.5 … that’s a 40 per cent gap … it is huge.
“He's clearly number one with ball in hand, that’s impact and influence, not volume.
“It doesn't matter how many he's getting, it's the scoreboard that's coming impact that's coming from it … but he's top six in the comp for ball winning.
“So, he's the best in the comp at using it and in the top half a dozen for winning the footy.
“If you take out the two rucks because rucks get to grab the ball out of the ruck … he's top four in the comp for winning the ball and the best in the comp for using it.
“I don't know if I've seen a player like that.”
While the likes of Willem Drew, Finn Maginness and George Hewett have been sent to Daicos at different times throughout the last month, King thinks he’s becoming untaggable.
He also pondered where Daicos’ career will go given he’s just two and a bit years in as he puts Collingwood back in the premiership race.
“He’s untaggable but you need to invest some sort of plan to negate his influence,” King said.
“The more you drill down onto what Nick's doing, the more you're blown away with the reality of the numbers and the influence.
“Where to? Where does this guy get to? It's a discussion for another day.
“But what a journey he's taken Collingwood on and, and he's got them back in the race.”
Daicos will hope to continue his stunning form when the Pies face the Eagles at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
