Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson loved Sunday’s battle between Nick Daicos and Harley Reid in Collingwood’s win over West Coast at Marvel Stadium.
It was the first time the young superstars had played each other and Daicos took the chocolates with a best-on-ground 36-disposal, one-goal, seven-clearance performance.
While it made sense that Daicos, 21, performed better than his 19-year-old counterpart, Reid still showed flashes of brilliance with his 17 disposals and three clearances.
Johnson hopes that Reid learns some lessons having seen Daicos go about his work up close after being taught a “footy lesson” under the roof.
“It was actually awesome watching it live,” Johnson told SEN's Sportsday.
“We pumped this up, obviously, as one of the key matchups on the day.
“I was disappointed West Coast as a whole on the afternoon I thought we were going to see more from them with what they had delivered.
“But the vision and all of our mindset went to Daicos versus Reid, and Daicos taught him an absolute footy lesson on the weekend.
“In some ways, I think it'll be awesome for Reid to be able to sit there on review.
“I hope his coach is going through with him around what Daicos was able to do on this particular day because his power run was a lot better than Reid's.
“I know we understand where Reid's at from a physical point of view and he needs to work on a few aspects of his game, but Daicos was that much more powerful and that much smarter in his running in his positioning and all these things.
“Reid took a fantastic hanger and had two or three really strong moments on the game, but Nick Daicos was the best player on the ground.
“I hope he shows Harley Reid the exact level that he needs to get to in two or three years’ time to be a real force in this in this competition.”
Johnson’s co-host Kane Cornes came in for criticism in the week before the game after pointing out his concern with Reid cramping late in their Round 8 loss to Essendon on Footy Classified.
Cornes said that if Reid wanted to be the best and follow in Daicos’ footsteps, that he’d have to lift his training standards to the Magpies’ level.
He doubled down on that after seeing them go head-to-head but reiterated that it’s not a criticism of Reid and instead simply hopes it motivates him to fulfil his obviously enormous potential as soon as he can.
“This was my exact point in the lead up to the game in response to what Nick Daicos did late in the in the previous week and then Harley Reid not being able to get through the game,” Cornes said.
“Hearing Craig McRae speak about how Nick prepares himself and his high-speed running late in games … I compared that to Reid, and I said, ‘If that's where you want to get to, go and learn from the best’.
“Maybe on reflection, I said it in the wrong tone. But essentially, that's exactly what I meant and you're essentially saying the same.
“You would be negligent as a coach to not go and show vision. There’s one centre bounce where they match up on each other and Reid just sort of drifts away and Nick sprints out to the far wing and he gets involved twice and he brings the ball back inside and he's sprinting, and he sort of leaves Harley in his dust.
“Now that's not a criticism, but as his midfield coach you sit down and you say, ‘Look, you matched up on Nick here. This is where we need you to get to in three years. So, let's start building your programme and your training habits around getting to that level’.
“That's all I was saying.”
Reid faces another huge test on Sunday when the Eagles host the Demons at Optus Stadium while Daicos and the Magpies face the Crows at the MCG on Saturday.
