Recruiters still talk about it. They were gathered at Duncan Mackinnon Reserve athletics track in Melbourne's south-east just days before the 2021 AFL Draft.
After the second-straight season cut short by COVID in Victoria, scouts were keen on getting as much insight into draft prospects as they could, so player agency Connors Sports Management organised a running session for their draft crop. Clubs could come and watch for a final piece of their recruiting puzzle.
Josh Rachele, Jake Soligo, Connor Macdonald, Darcy Wilmot, Josh Sinn, Tyler Sonsie and Campbell Chesser were among the players there that day.
By then, Nick Daicos knew he was headed to Collingwood as a father-son. But, having not played since July of that year, and nursing an ankle injury through the year, he viewed the running session as a last chance to impress. He didn't – and doesn't – usually miss too many of those.
So he flew around the track in their 2km time trial. As other prospects wilted, the 18-year-old Daicos glided. "It still sticks in my head," said one recruiter there. "We hadn't seen him do anything like it before. Everyone was in awe of his games and class, but his running probably went under the radar until that day."
Daicos finished second in that time trial. Coincidentally, he was beaten by Ned Long, who went on to be rookie-listed by Hawthorn, then delisted and then get a second chance at Collingwood, where he is now a key cog in the Magpies' midfield next to Daicos.
So much of what Daicos has done in his first three-and-a-half seasons at AFL level has been obvious for everyone to see: the precision kicking, the deft touches by hand, the class around goal and brilliance with the ball. Genetics have played their part in that, with Daicos deploying some of the skills his champion father Peter displayed in his 250-game career at Collingwood.
But it has all been powered by Daicos' immense running capacity, a blend of speed and endurance that has been built and refined over time.
There were mitigating circumstances for Daicos' running strength being unsung. He chose not to play at under-16s level for Vic Metro and often played deeper in attack for school side Carey Grammar.
He basically didn't do any official athletic testing in his junior career apart from some pre-season tracking as a bottom-ager in 2020, when he was beaten in an endurance test by Hawthorn draftee Connor Downie. After missing the 2021 Victorian Draft Combine testing due to injury, Daicos didn't enter the AFL with a record time trial, a sub six-minute eye-catching run or a blitzing 20-metre sprint. His reputation had not yet included dazzling running.
"In terms of the exposure around his testing, it was minimal," said Derek Hine, the Pies' former long-time recruiting boss.
"He played as a deep forward at Carey and you could see him get off players pretty easily. What really surprised me when he came in was how quick he was. It's so underrated. He arches his back and he's like the 'Road Runner'.
"His ability to go lateral when going forward is elite. Chris Judd could sidestep and accelerate and I personally think he's a bit quicker than 'Juddy'. He has a real ability to get out and go and change games that way."
Beep beep, indeed.
Like most elements of Daicos' game, his running was harnessed through effort and training. Rinse, repeat. Running wasn't his first natural instinct, but hours and hours at Greythorn Park in Balwyn in Melbourne's east saw Daicos gradually build his tank. His obsessiveness in watching players and games as a kid saw him study their training habits, too, and he knew as a smaller midfielder his running would be central to his hopes at the top level.
As an early teen, he would join older brother Josh and Dan Houston, then a schoolmate at Camberwell Grammar and now a teammate at Collingwood, in triathlon trainings on Wednesday afternoons after school. They would do stationary bike riding into 8km runs to build up their fitness bases, with Nick the youngest of the group but watching their every move.
Nowadays, while widely viewed as the best player in the game, Daicos does more relaxed running to keep at the level, with two weekly 10km runs at five-minute pace, maintaining the standard without the high intensity. During games, his high-speed running levels are off the charts and account for much of his 13-14km travelled most games. In referencing his GPS earlier this season, Daicos' coach Craig McRae said his star's high speed running is "next level" and "no one in the competition would match that."
Damian Farrow, the AFL's football innovation manager and a professor in skill acquisition, says that much of Daicos' artistry with his feet comes from his ability to mislead.
"The thing that stands out to me is it would be fascinating to know whether he actually is faster than most players or he's just not predictable at all. When he drives out of a contest, he takes a couple of quick steps and he starts selling info to the defender on where he's going," Farrow said.
"But he never runs in a straight line so he creates separation and space that way with an illusionary element. The other part to that is that he's got composure, so he always knows what his end point is and what disposal he is going to execute."
Farrow highlighted a goal Daicos kicked in the Pies' 2023 premiership season against West Coast – where he ran from the middle of Optus Stadium, handballed to Tom Mitchell, got it back, kicked in board, got a handball and then snapped from inside 50 as an example of his pace, run, carry, skills and smarts all converging.
"What that handball did was unlock the chasing defender from himself and then send him to the other player. He was tracking Daicos, then he swapped, and then Daicos for the handball back and created space from it. He knew all the way that was the plan," Farrow said.
"Every club does 'mirroring' drills where you use techniques to track direct opponents. But he broke that mirroring in that moment."
It makes it extra hard to stop him, as clubs continue to devise strategies and plans. Last week, the Bombers used emerging midfield gun Sam Durham to quell Daicos' influence.
"We were trying to pretty much do what we did last year in round 17 with limiting the damage. But Nick's added another element to his game which is centre-bounce work. It's pretty hard to stop him in there when you're four on four in 50 metres of space," Essendon coach Brad Scott said.
"He's an explosive player who comes out the front of the contest. That was a focus for us to stop that. But you can train it, you can review it, you can watch vision, it doesn’t mean you can execute it. Our execution wasn't up to the level we planned."
His season started in the spotlight after being tagged closely by Giant Toby Bedford in Opening Round, with Daicos cramping through the second half of the game. Since then, Collingwood is unbeaten and the likes of Port Adelaide's Willem Drew, Carlton's George Hewett, Sydney's James Jordon, Brisbane's Jarrod Berry and then Durham have all tried different negating tactics on Daicos. Ed Richards spent half the game matched up against him in round two against the Bulldogs, while Tom Atkins looms as Geelong's obvious go-to in Saturday's heavyweight game at the MCG.
Champion Data shows for a third straight year Daicos is averaging 31 disposals a game. His score involvements are at a career-high 7.7 a game, which places him top-10 in the competition and his assists have risen to 1.6 a game. He ranks elite for disposals, uncontested possessions, metres gained, clearances and score involvements, making him the clear top offensive gamebreaker in the competition.
So can a motor like that be stopped? One coach told AFL.com.au that a "total shutdown" was the only way to approach an attempt at that, with his running capacity his biggest tag repellent.
"There's only one person who has done it and it's been Finn Maginness. It takes a total commitment to the task at the expense of the team and what you want to do. Then you concede on other things if that's the best way. Is making Nick Daicos get 18 disposals, four score involvements and a goal important enough to do it that way? I think it probably is," he said. "I look forward to him playing Bedford again..."
Another coach said the priority needed to be on restricting where he got the ball. "It can work for you by pushing him deeper into defence to get the ball but you can't let him free wheel," said one coach. Another said it was about "mitigating damage" rather than attempting a complete stop. "Planning around him is as important as planning for him," they said.
Some clubs have been caught out doing just that. With Collingwood sitting on top of the ladder at 6-1, aside from Opening Round, close tagging jobs on Daicos haven't helped teams get close to stopping the Pies. Has the focus on negating Nick become a sideshow to containing Collingwood and will that see clubs reconsidering their approach in the second half of the season?
"It might," said one assistant coach. "You have to think about what the team is getting out of it and if it can be too costly to dedicate a role to that. And he's such a good runner anyway so is it actually going to work?"
