Most AFL games have a key moment, a turning point which signals a decisive shift in momentum. It’s not often they happen before that game actually starts.
But it was always going to be the case for Collingwood at the Gabba on Thursday night once not only the Pies’ best but arguably the competition’s best player in Nick Daicos was the latest of withdrawals.
Pregame drama doesn’t come much greater than a bona fide superstar of the competition undergoing an on-field fitness test half-an-hour before the start. It didn’t go well from the start, either, Daicos’s corked calf heavily strapped and his limp pronounced. A rueful shake of the head confirmed he wasn’t going to be lining up.
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Which, let’s be honest, completely changed the equation of this match. Collingwood is renowned for gutsy backs-to-the-wall wins on the road, and the Pies had won the last two of these Good Friday eve clashes.
But the Magpies aren’t overflowing with superstars. More significantly this time, they were already without two critical pieces of the jigsaw in skipper Darcy Moore, the side’s pivotal key defender, and his predecessor as captain and midfield general, Scott Pendlebury.
Could they hold the lines not only missing that pair but Nick Daicos as well? That was the obvious question. And the answer was an emphatic “no”. Brisbane’s eventual 54-point win was, if anything, cutting Collingwood some slack
It looked ominous literally from the very start of the contest, when the first centre contest was won decisively by Brisbane ruckman Sam Draper, who put the ball down the throat of Will Ashcroft, who gave it to Cam Rayner, who found Kail Lohmann in the forward-pocket.
Goal Brisbane. Time? Just 44 seconds. And that’s pretty much how it continued, only some Brisbane profligacy in front of goal and some isolated patches of Magpie resistance saving the visitors complete embarrassment.
The numbers said plenty. It was 34 scores to just 15. The Lions had 115 more disposals, 19 more inside 50s, almost doubled Collingwood’s clearance tally, 38 more contested possessions and 76 more uncontested possessions.
Well, while we talk a lot about the Pies’ old age, it’s more the lack of depth when it comes to genuine class which is likely to thwart any 2026 aspirations. Russell Freeman/AFL Photos via Getty Images
They took a whopping 20 marks inside 50 to the Pies’ measly five, Kai Lohmann, Logan Morris and Oscar Allen sharing 10 goals between them.
Even more simply, they just dominated possession, refusing to allow the Pies to get their hands on the football nearly enough. Indeed, even by halftime, when the margin was still for Collingwood a gettable 29 points, Brisbane had 11 of the leading 13 possession-winners on the ground.
The Pies have had plenty of stirring wins over the years even from there, but it never looked likely this time. Not without the sort of names missing, and not against the best side in the competition with so much talent to burn there’s terrific players missing out on a spot in the lineup week after week.
And that’s the message out of this result, really. We know Brisbane will be thereabouts again barring untold disasters. Collingwood, though? Well, while we talk a lot about the Pies’ old age, it’s more the lack of depth when it comes to genuine class which is likely to thwart any 2026 aspirations.
Perversely perhaps, Nick Daicos’s absence was as strong an argument for his status in the game as a best-on-ground performance from him might have been. Why? Because what he adds to Collingwood’s armoury is even clearer after this result, and it’s far more than just outside run and speed.
The glorified trolls who continue to suggest Daicos isn’t the complete package would simply have to take notice of those lopsided clearance and contested ball counts, 42-24 Brisbane’s way in the former category, and 131-92 in the latter. That’s because Daicos is also Collingwood’s No.1 ranked player in both those facets.
Perhaps the Pies might still have survived Pendlebury’s absence, but he and Daicos both out? That’s a bridge too far for Collingwood in the key area of the ground, let alone against the deepest midfield in the competition.
And it was carnage in there at stages, Will Ashcroft and Lachie Neale taking it in turns to waltz out of the stoppages, five of the leading six clearance winners Brisbane players.
Collingwood’s defence, meanwhile, was under siege, and whilst the Pies have managed to survive down back this season essentially without Moore, they were at far longer odds to do so with the amount of riches Brisbane was packing inside 50.
In attack, meanwhile, the “no N Daicos” factor also loomed large, his quality disposal sadly missed and so many of the entries the Pies did manage haphazard and not to Collingwood’s advantage.
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Brisbane fans at this point will rightly claim “but what about who we’re missing?” A very valid point, too, given the current lack of Harris Andrews and Hugh McCluggage, among others.
But this is a side which in last year’s grand final was missing Jarrod Berry, Eric Hipwood, Lincoln McCarthy, Keidean Coleman and Jack Payne and still won handsomely. Its depth now, given the addition of Allen and Draper, is at an all-time high.
Certainly a contrast with Collingwood’s ins and outs at the Gabba, which ended up Lachie Sullivan, Will Hayes and Ed Allan in for Moore, Pendlebury and then fatally, Daicos. Enough said.
Bottom line? It’s too early to be writing off a Collingwood which has plenty of spirit, a hardly catastrophic 2-2 win-loss record, and those aforementioned stars to return. You can say, though, with some more certainty, that if the Magpies don’t get their very best names on the park for the vast bulk of this season, they’re not going to be playing much part in the pointy end of it.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly’s work at FOOTYOLOGY
