Collingwood star Nick Daicos is well on the way to putting together the most imperious first 100 games this century. It is arguably among the best starts to a career in the AFL-era, and only the unreliability of memory and difficulty in comparing one period to another should prevent Daicos from being ranked alongside the most immediately impactful players of all time. But there might already be a challenger to Daicos’s crown as Brisbane midfielder Will Ashcroft begins to stake a claim to being the best young footballer of this generation.
With his sidesteps and swerves and arched lower back, Daicos is almost impossible to tackle once on the move. He rarely loses his feet and is tougher at the contest than opposition supporters might care to admit. Since moving into the midfield, his clean hands and poise in possession have changed the way the Pies play.
After 94 games, Daicos has already been a – if not the – critical part of a Magpies premiership side. He has earned individual accolades that could define a career. A Brownlow medal that has felt almost inevitable could finally be added to the 22-year-old’s haul of early career highlights as soon as Monday night.
Daicos bleeds black and white but he comes from blue blood – his father, Peter, is Collingwood royalty. The “Macedonian Marvel” is a Magpies great who booted 549 goals in 250 matches and helped the club break a 32-year premiership drought. Nick is following in the footsteps of his father as well as his brother, Josh. The older brother, Josh, 26, has become a versatile and reliable piece of the Pies’ premiership-hunting puzzle.
The Magpies have benefited more than most from the father-son rule. But in the preliminary final on Saturday, the Daicos brothers and Collingwood will face the reigning premiers with their own share of father-son spoils. Namely, Will and Levi Ashcroft, after their father, Marcus, was an unsung hero across more than 300 games when Brisbane transformed from the easybeat Bears into the triple premiership-winning Lions.
Will Ashcroft arrived at the Lions a year after Nick Daicos joined the Magpies and might have been on a similar trajectory if not for a serious knee injury halfway through his debut season. Despite spending almost a year out of the game , the 21-year-old has a body of work that can rival the Magpies’ son-of-a-gun better than most. Ashcroft has only played 56 matches in three seasons but is in the conversation as the top emerging talent in the game – especially when he steps on to a finals stage.
Daicos is rightly one of the most acclaimed players in the game, but Will has had his measure across the six finals that each of them have played – without crossing paths before this Saturday. The Lions midfielder has averaged 26.2 disposals, 10.8 contested possessions and 5.2 clearances a game at the pointy end of the season. Daicos’s numbers are narrowly behind at 25.7, 7.7 and 2.3.
The Pies’ midfielder kicked the opening goal of the 2023 grand final, played a pivotal role in a match-turning centre clearance in the dying stages, and was among the best afield. Ashcroft went a step further just a year later with 30 disposals and a goal as Brisbane trounced Sydney and he became the youngest Norm Smith medallist in the AFL-era.
Ashcroft plays with a similar polish to Daicos when he has the ball in his hands and can find a touch more grunt when it is there to be won. That helps the Brisbane midfielder lift his impact as the stakes rise at this time of year, as does playing with a chip on his shoulder. Gold Coast picked the wrong target when they questioned his Norm Smith medal-winning credentials during a pre-season game earlier this year. The young Lion had the final word with a performance that even surpassed his display in last year’s decider as he helped to end the Suns’ season last week.
Younger brother Levi Ashcroft is one of the AFL’s most-talented prospects and in the running for this year’s rising star award. The 18-year-old has played every game for the Lions and averaged 19.4 disposals in his debut season while mostly playing out of position on a wing. Like Will has had to do, Levi is being made to bide his time before joining an onball brigade that threatens to dominate the competition for years to come.
The Daicos and Ashcroft brothers are likely to spend time lining up against each other and perhaps even going head-to-head across their preliminary final. Whether one or more of the Magpies’ brothers in arms, or the siblings from the sunshine state, can rise to the occasion will have a huge bearing on the result on Saturday. But the debate over which brotherly duo is better, is one that fans will get to enjoy for the next decade.
