"Worse for wear": How Daicos celebrated Brownlow triumph

Nick Daicos feels privileged to have claimed his first Brownlow Medal.

The Collingwood star broke the Brownlow record by polling 47 votes in Monday night’s count, beating Geelong’s Bailey Smith by 11 votes and Western Bulldogs star Marcus Bontempelli in third.

The 23-year-old was overjoyed after spending the night with family and friends following his landslide victory.

“It's a massive honour, I feel very privileged,” he said on SEN Breakfast.

“I’m feeling a little bit worse for wear this morning, the friends and family rolled in last night after the count and wanted to have a few drinks which I was all for. I was super excited to share in the celebration with them, but definitely feeling it today.

“There was a lot of us. Dad's got a big extended family. It was really nice to share everything with everyone and I feel like that's my why. That's why I do what I do and why I work so hard is to see the smile on everyone's face in a circumstance like last night.

“It was really special.”

Daicos answered all the questions form Garry Lyon and Tim Watson on the morning after his big win.

Was there a Macedonian tipple floating around?

“There was some tequila going around and Barry’s, we've got our little alcohol brand, Barry’s, which we share amongst a couple of us, but no there wasn't too much flying around.”

When he felt comfortable he would win:

“To be honest, our whole table was sort of watching the counter and we were a little bit nervous and unsure,”

“I think you don't really believe it until it's official which I think was Round 21 or 22. It was massive sigh of relief and sense of accomplishment.

“It’s obviously such a prestigious award and massive honour. Not only for myself but I feel like it also represents so many. I don't stand up there by myself. It sounds cliche but my teammates and my coaching staff and everyone that goes into it, so I feel like I'm the beneficiary of what they do and it was really nice to get the rewards last night.”

What has he worked on to improve his game?

“I felt like my reaction time, I really had to improve. I just felt like if I was going to have someone wear me like a glove everywhere I went, I had to out-read them. Whether it was an extra second that it gave me to get onto a loose ball or whatever it was, I felt like I had to improve in that aspect.

“I did lots of vision around stoppage and craft and how I could gain an extra metre. That's something that I'm still evolving in. I watch someone like Lachie Neale around stoppage and how he's able to just gain himself an extra metre. That means he can get the ball and then put his teammate in a better position after that.

“So it's something that I feel like I'm still evolving in, but I feel like I've made good progress at the same time.”

How much footy he watches:

“I feel like, to be honest, I'm a little bit of a football nuffy. I feel like not too many players say it nowadays.

“Everyone likes to say that they don't watch footy or they don't enjoy watching footy. But I'm the first to admit I love watching footy. I loved sitting down Saturday night and watching the prelim final or whatever occasion it is.

“That's a curiosity for me. If we get coaches from another team I'll always pick their brain about what that team did or players and and what I can improve on or what the team can improve on. I feel like that's always been me, this sort of curiosity to improve and I've always wanted the team to benefit from that too.”

On the influence of his partner, Arlette, and her family:

“She doesn't know too much about footy but she's been an amazing support to me. To achieve what we did last night, you can't do it without people like her in your corner and I'm very fortunate.

“I feel like she's a great balancer for me because she doesn't know a terrible amount about footy and she'd be the first to say that.

“I’m always someone that's curious and trying to get better, so pretty quickly it can be pretty absorbing when you're constantly trying to focus on how you can get better and you're constantly thinking about football.

“So it's nice to have that off switch when you do go to your partner's place and I've always been very lucky that they've always just treated me like Nick regardless of how football is going, whether it's going amazing or it's not going so well, they've always treated me the same which I've been super grateful for.

“I feel like it's part of the process of getting better. I feel like it is absorbing, but at the same time, you do need to have that off switch, which I've been very grateful for.”

On the Nike ad in the Herald Sun:

“(Manager) Robbie (D’Orazio) mentioned it to me during the week and to be honest my first initial response was it was a little bit overwhelming,”

“But then when it sunk in I did jump at the opportunity because I've always grown up wearing Nike, and I’ve had a great partnership with them and they've supported me the whole way through my AFL career.

“So I think any campaign or anything you can do with Nike you sort of got to jump at the opportunity. It was a little bit daunting obviously doing it before the count had happened and did add a little bit of pressure but now that it's all done and it has panned out, it's pretty cool.”

__What’s next? __

“I’ll be a pretty low key to be honest. I'll go up to the Gold Coast for a while, I'll probably spend a month up there just really enjoy the sunshine and getting to the beach and training in the morning,”

“I’ll spend some time up there and then a few of the younger lads that are hanging around in Melbourne that have wanted to do some training sessions. I’m really excited by the youth that we've got at the club and and I feel like it's a little bit of my responsibility to help sort of grow that youth and they're also pushing me.

“Probably mid-November I'll come back to Melbourne and start training again with them before we head back to the club.”

Who deserves a statue at Carey Grammar after Matt Rowell won last year’s Brownlow?

“I think really he's got the runs on the board and he's an absolute superstar. He's an ultimate professional. I was so happy to see him win it last year and I feel like he's had an amazing career and he's got an amazing career ahead of him.

“So hopefully we can get him back to Melbourne at some point. But he's been unbelievable.”

On the media frenzy:

“I think this is my fifth, and I think there's a few more. I was talking to Patty Cripps about it before. I’ve been in this position before where I've sort of I've been in contention and it hasn't gone my way.

“It's nice to be on the good end of it this time and all the interviews are a part of it. So it's nice.”

Garry Lyon at State of Origin:

“I was talking to Rowelly about it last night. Gaz was awesome at State of Origin and he clearly knows his footy. He's got an unbelievable footy IQ.

“The only thing I did have a problem with was the footy shorts he was wearing throughout the whole State of Origin. He was wearing these tight footy shorts. I love Gaz, but I don't know if they suited him too well.

“He was unbelievable, but if we can change those, it'd be the perfect fitting.”

Listen to the full chat below: