โThe system needed to be changed to reward the extreme games โ and he had an extreme game tonight, didnโt he?โ McRae said. โNickโs just maturing so much in front of our eyes.โ
One of the talking points entering the clash was whether St Kildaโs $2 million man, breakout star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, was a superior player to Daicos.
McRae thought highly enough of the silky and slippery Wanganeen-Milera to tap Harry Perryman on the shoulder as early as last Wednesday โ at the club leadersโ urging โ to see if he was interested in attempting to blanket the brilliant Saint. By Friday, the plan went ahead.
Wanganeen-Milera had his moments, mostly in the first half, but his 19 disposals and one goal โ a brilliant snap in the second term that gave St Kilda the lead โ were modest compared to Daicosโ heroics.
The Saints tried moving him from the midfield to attack and eventually down back in a desperate bid to get him going, but Perryman never left his side. McRae opted to be versatile and adapt on the fly, including sending Jack Crisp into the midfield when Perryman went down back, whereas Lyon backed in his system.
โShould we attack Daicos โฆ maybe, in hindsight,โ Lyon said.
โHe had 41. We did send someone [Garcia] to him for a little bit, and โNasโ didnโt have his best night, but he never gave up and kept working. Heโs got to work through that phase.
โHow many of [Daicosโ disposals] were lateral, uncontested marks? Iโm not too sure. I donโt think either one of them, whether it be โNasโ or Daicos, [were] why they got the points โฆ I thought [Daicos] played his part. I could be wrong โ Iโve got to go home and review. Itโs always dangerous. But no, I wouldnโt have thought.โ
Ex-Giant Perryman, long known as a versatile Mr Fix-it, was a tad surprised Lyon and co. chose not to give someone a negating job on Daicos.
He was more than happy to do the same on Wanganeen-Milera, and spent the night admiring his own teammateโs genius.
โIโm very grateful to be able to play with him,โ Perryman told The Age of Daicos.
โI reckon one day Iโll sit back and be pretty gobsmacked I got to play with him because heโs one of a kind. Heโs the best player Iโve ever played with, by a mile. Heโs an awesome teammate, and we love him. He wows you all the time โ heโs a special talent.โ
Another pre-match talking point, perhaps a tired one, was Collingwoodโs dadโs army list, which was again widely written off and rated as the underdogs against the Saints and their high-priced recruits.
They fielded four players aged 32 or older โ Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Crisp and Jamie Elliott โ and were without captain Darcy Moore and Jeremy Howe in defence, but survived a frenetic final quarter and kicked 11 goals from only 40 inside 50s while conceding 63.
With that in mind, Collingwoodโs high performance manager, Jarrod Wade, devised a plan under the new AFL rules, with five players on the bench, for Pendlebury to play sparingly in the first half.
The 38-year-old, five-time Copeland Trophy winner, who joined ex-Hawk Michael Tuck in playing his 426th game, bided his time on the pine for most of the first and second quarters before entering late to provide quality over quantity.
Ten score involvements and 26 disposals were the result. Lyon was mostly unfussed about Pendlebury, too.
โWe thought his touches were quality โฆ [but] he had one kick in the first half. We didnโt talk about him at half-time, with respect to everybody,โ Lyon said.
Perryman said he and his teammates laugh off the criticism about their ageing list. Given two chances post-match to do the same himself, McRae took neither.
But the 2023 premiership coach clearly values experience, whether it be from Pendlebury and Sidebottom or the only slightly younger Jordan De Goey, Dan Houston, Cameron and Moore. However, McRae insists they are evolving.
โI know next week weโll be older [again]. Our experience is enormous, but our list is different,โ he said.
โWe donโt have Mason [Cox], Tom Mitchell, Oleg Markov and Will Hoskin-Elliott [any more]. Weโre going to need our whole list, but weโve got a team out there that knows what to do.โ
