{"id":67245,"date":"2020-05-11T19:42:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T09:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afl.draftcentral.localhost\/?p=67245"},"modified":"2020-05-11T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T09:42:01","slug":"qa-nick-daicos-oakleigh-chargers-vic-metro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/2020\/05\/11\/qa-nick-daicos-oakleigh-chargers-vic-metro\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Nick Daicos (Oakleigh Chargers\/Vic Metro)"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last few weeks, we head back to the pre-season where we sat down with a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central<\/em>‘s Peter Williams<\/em><\/strong> chatted with Oakleigh Chargers’ Nick Daicos<\/b>\u00a0at the NAB League Fitness Testing Day hosted by Rookie Me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A midfielder\/forward with silky skills, Daicos comes from legendary pedigree with his father, Peter<\/strong>‘s 250 games for Collingwood ensuring the youngster is eligible to be drafted under the father-son rule in 2021. Akin to his brother, Josh<\/strong>‘s journey, Nick has only just entered the Oakleigh program in his 17th year, and would have been a consensus choice to play for Vic Metro at last year’s Under 16 national carnival.<\/p>\n

The Carey Grammar student also captured attention with his form in the APS competition, running out alongside the likes of former Chargers Matt Rowell<\/strong><\/a> and Noah Anderson<\/strong><\/a> in what was a successful 2019 campaign. Daicos is poised to get a run through the stacked Oakleigh side in between school football and possible representative commitments should competitions commence, with a pre-season hip niggle now behind him.<\/p>\n

Hear what the impressive bottom-ager had to say about his journey, added expectations, and the year ahead in our latest Q&A.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Q&A:<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

PW: How’s the day been so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ND: “Pretty good so far. I’ve been injured over the past few weeks with a hip injury so I’ve just been here supporting the boys. It’s been good.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What kind of things do you do during testing day when you’re not out there yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I’m just more getting around the boys and chatting today. Obviously if I was competing I’d be warming up, trying to get the best results I can but as I can’t impact physically I’m just trying to encourage the boys so they can optimise their performance.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Playing school footy last year and now coming into Oakleigh, how has that been for your development?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I think it’s been really good. I enjoyed Carey (Grammar) footy last year, we had a good year as a team and the training was quite advanced so it’s been a bit of a smooth transition. Obviously a bit of a change but I’m slowly gauging the standard and adjusting to it.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there anything particularly different between training with school and Oakleigh?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Clarkey (Oakleigh coach, Leigh Clarke<\/em><\/strong>) emphasises on just being really sharp and utilising every minute. It is a bit more professional in that aspect, you can’t really waste a minute.<\/p>\n

“You get to training, you’ve got 30 minutes before training to just do some craft work and optimise your performance there. So that’s probably where it’s a bit different, you can’t waste any time at all.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you manage the extra expectations and media attention to just play your own game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Well that’s exactly it, I just try and play my own game. I think sometimes it’s nice when you get a bit of praise, and then also when you get in trouble.<\/p>\n

“But you’ve also got to realise that you’ve just got to have your small group of people that you listen to and take their opinion – the good, the bad, and the indifferent.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How much do you learn off or lean on them for advice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I lean on them a lot, I’ve got a good little small group. Coaches in particular, Dad, my brother, (are) some people I like going to.<\/p>\n

“Leigh (Clarke) has been really good with me just to start with here at Oakleigh and I’ve learned a lot already so hopefully that can just grow and grow.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What do you see as your strengths on the field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Probably just my ability to run with the ball and use it by foot, to bring others into the game.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where have you enjoyed playing most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I predominantly see myself as a midfielder. I can rotate forward though so it’s a good option to have.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Going forward, what improvements are you looking to make?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I really want to improve on my marking this year and then a bit of the physical aspect I think I can improve on. So hopefully playing midfield that can help me.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Being a bottom-ager, what are your goals for this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Just to grow as a player. Lots of experience this year can hopefully be gained and hopefully can set me up to have a good top-age year and learn the level.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And with the injury today, is it anything that will delay your season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I think I should be alright early on. I’m playing in a practice match (back in March) which we’re still discussing with the physio if I’m going to be on monitored minutes so we’ll see how we go. But I think I should be ready to go as soon as the season starts.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So you’ll be at Oakleigh for the first few games, then return for the rest after school football?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yeah that’s the aim. Hopefully I get a game in early which would be really nice, and then school footy. Then it all starts.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who are you looking forward to playing with here at Oakleigh?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan)<\/strong><\/a> down forward, I’m really looking forward to him. We haven’t been able to train much in rehab so I’ve just been kicking to him which has been good.<\/p>\n

“Then a couple of the on-ballers; Will Phillips<\/strong><\/a>, Lochie Jenkins<\/strong><\/a>. They’re just all great kids so I’m looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AS the postponement of all seasons commenced over the last few weeks, we head back to the pre-season where we sat down with a number of athletes across the country. In a special Question and Answer (Q&A) feature, Draft Central‘s Peter Williams chatted with Oakleigh Chargers’ Nick Daicos\u00a0at the NAB League Fitness Testing Day hosted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":67255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,7949,17,8,11595],"tags":[12033,2516,2217,567,12032,12034,161,2547,7951,12031,5306,2521,48,1438,1680],"class_list":["post-67245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-articles","category-nab-league","category-national-championships","category-news","category-oakleigh-chargers","tag-2021-father-son","tag-aps-football","tag-carey-grammar","tag-collingwood","tag-collingwood-father-son","tag-father-son-rule","tag-josh-daicos","tag-matt-rowell","tag-nab-league","tag-nicholas-daicos","tag-nick-daicos","tag-noah-anderson","tag-oakleigh-chargers","tag-peter-daicos","tag-school-football"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/central.rookieme.com\/afl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}