Nick Daicos is hoping to complete a stellar season with a deep September run. (Getty Images: Josh Chadwick)
Sit long enough in the outer of a footy game and the hot takes will start flying fast. Sometimes they start out innocuous, like about how much they should just kick the bloody thing.
But usually things get interesting as the game gets deeper. Opinions on the state of the world — both footy and real — usually proliferate conversation in the lulls of the action.
Differing views of one player tend to come up perhaps more than any other footy-based topic — the player in Collingwood's number 35 guernsey.
"I am on record as saying that Daicos is the best player in the comp," Geelong coach Chris Scott told the media ahead of their game against Collingwood last month.
At just 23 years old, Nick Daicos has achieved more than most players do across an entire career. Daicos is already a premiership-winning four-time All Australian. This year Daicos has already won the Coaches Association and Players' Association MVPs (his second of each), and is a heavy favourite for Collingwood's Copeland Trophy.
Despite starting this year off slowly, he has already been deemed by many to be the presumptive Brownlow Medallist and a chance to break the all-time record for votes under the current system.
Both Collingwood and Daicos have kicked into another gear after the bye, entrenching themselves in the finals race for yet another season.
"He's that diligent and professional in his game, and his desire to win," Collingwood coach Craig McRae told the media last week.
"His game's gone to another level. He takes us to places that we want to get to."
More importantly, Nick Daicos may be the single most exciting player to watch in football. If you had to recommend the highlights of one current player to watch for anyone new to the sport, Daicos is probably the choice.
Yet Daicos has not been above criticism from some corners of footy fandom. Some armchair critics deride the "soft" ball that he wins. Others poke at other parts of his game, or compare him to greats of eras past. At the same time, those in black and white are already calling for Daicos to be considered on track to be one of the greatest ever.
This weekend sees Daicos come head-to-head with another player often tabbed as the best player in the game; the Bulldogs' Marcus Bontempelli. For each player and their sides, they could be playing the last game of 2026 unless they can demonstrate something special.
The famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright said that form and function are in union, not separate concepts.
Most football players follow this conceptual framework. If Errol Gulden is like the Opera House, Sam Collins is more like Scrivener Dam. Both fit their form to the function required.
