{"id":789082,"date":"2026-07-09T11:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789082\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:34:11","slug":"afl-news-2026-gold-coast-suns-planting-seeds-to-luring-nick-daicos-from-collingwood-as-a-free-agent-in-2029-cal-twomey-and-matthew-richardson-discuss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789082\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Gold Coast Suns planting seeds to luring Nick Daicos from Collingwood as a free agent in 2029; Cal Twomey and Matthew Richardson discuss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast<\/a> is doing what it can to attempt to lure Collingwood<\/a> superstar Nick Daicos<\/a> to the club down the line, potentially when he becomes a free agent in 2029.<\/p>\n

The Magpies champion is the favourite for this year\u2019s Brownlow Medal and is already a three-time All-Australian, premiership player, Collingwood best and fairest and vice captain of the club at just 23.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nick Daicos of the Magpies celebrates kicking a goal.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Arguably the best player in the competition, Daicos is building one of the game\u2019s great resumes at this early stage of his career. <\/p>\n

During last year\u2019s trade period, it was reported that multiple clubs, including the Tassie Devils, enquired with the midfielder\u2019s management about his potential availability<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It stemmed from Daicos finishing second in Collingwood\u2019s best and fairest<\/a>, a situation that saw his father Peter Daicos depart the count early. <\/p>\n

Leading AFL reporter Cal Twomey revealed on Footy Classified on Tuesday night<\/a> that the Suns were a realistic chance to lure him away from Collingwood, if the opportunity presented itself in the future. <\/p>\n

The report drew some criticism, but Twomey has since elaborated on the situation as he knows it. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you have to report things knowing they\u2019re not going to happen right now,\u201d Twomey told 3AW on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened recently is Gold Coast, who have a number of clubs asking the question of their players, asked the question back. They reached out to the management of Nick Daicos and said \u2018what are the chances\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, a number of clubs reached out to Nick Daicos directly or his management during the trade period and asked themselves to see if there was any chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe links here are that the Daicos\u2019 have extended family in Queensland. They spend a lot of time on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cGold Coast was the one club to formally interview Daicos during his draft year. They took him through their facility, and he enjoyed that at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually a decision he weighed up in his draft year, nominating the Pies as a father-son or entering the open draft where if he had, the Suns would have moved up to the No.1 pick and draft him. They were also the club that bid on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir interest in him has remained consistent and they\u2019ve made that clear. Yes, every club would be interested in Nick Daicos, but he\u2019s a free agent in 2029, if you\u2019re not planting the seed now to start him thinking about it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Richmond legend Matthew Richardson believes it would be the single biggest trade period move in the game\u2019s history, topping Gold Coast\u2019s signing of Gary Ablett back in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be the biggest contract in AFL history if he leaves Collingwood,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t picture him (leaving the) black and white stripes because of the name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highest-paid player in the AFL in 2026 is St Kilda\u2019s Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, earning $2m per season.<\/p>\n

Come 2029, it\u2019s likely Daicos\u2019 next contract will be worth significantly more. <\/p>\n

Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick addressed the rumoured links on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers such as Nick, and various other players, any club would be crazy not to look at,\u201d Hardwick told reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose decisions are probably out of my control, we\u2019ll just work with what we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really happy with the playing group and list we have at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always looking to improve that, absolutely, but they\u2019re list management decisions that will take place towards the back-end of the year and the years forthcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast is doing what it can to attempt to lure Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos to the club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-789082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}