Collingwood is openly challenging St Kilda to assign a hard tag to Nick Daicos, with Magpies coach Craig mcrae questioning the overall effectiveness of such a tactic.

following St Kilda’s Marcus Windhager’s effort to limit Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli to just 14 possessions last week, speculation is rife that he will be tasked with shadowing the Magpies’ star midfielder in their Saturday night AFL encounter.

Though, McRae pointed out that the Bulldogs still dominated St Kilda, winning by a meaningful 72-point margin.He also noted that while Melbourne’s Ed Langdon managed to curtail Daicos’ influence during the King’s Birthday match, Collingwood still emerged victorious in a closely contested game.

McRae revealed that during Collingwood’s post-game analysis, he was surprised by the amount of off-ball attention daicos received early in the game against Melbourne.

“It caught me off guard a bit how much he was getting tackled off the ball early,” McRae said on Thursday.

“But he got some reasonable free kicks in the end to balance that out.”

“You tag someone, that comes at a cost to you and so we hope they tag him this week, which I’m sure they will.”

“You have to find the best of best worlds.”

The Magpies hosted umpires at their Thursday training session, and assistant coach Matthew Boyd ensured that the attention daicos receives from opposing teams was discussed.

“He just asked the question,” McRae said with a grin.

The Collingwood coach also mentioned that they are continually seeking the optimal strategy to support Daicos, while together maximizing their chances of securing a win.

“Windhager tagged Bontempelli and they lost by 72 points – what value do you put on it?” McRae said.

McRae on Daicos’ Impact and Team Strategy

“Nick in itself is a challenge every week… the opposition want him to be the opposite of that.”

“Nick in itself is a challenge every week. You want him to be the best he possibly can be and then the opposition want him to be the opposite of that.

“So we have to get the balance right – do what’s required to win the game and then obviously Nick’s a big part of that.

“But it’s pleasing to think we’re winning games and Nick’s not having an influence – that says a lot about our system. I’m constantly looking at how we can support Nick.”

Injury Updates: Lipinski Returns,Maynard still Out

In other team news,Pat Lipinski is set to return after recovering from a concussion,but Brayden Maynard will remain sidelined for another week as he continues to regain fitness following a foot injury.

“Bruzzy is a couple of training sessions short of being ready to really be at his best,” McRae said.

“Ideally he’ll set himself up to be available next week.

“This is a high-performance decision more than a coaches’ decision … a couple more sessions, he’ll be right.”