AFL: GWS coach won’t direct players to be extra physical with Nick Daicos

But the Giants coach couldn’t rule it out either.

A decision on whether Toby Greene, who missed last week with an ankle issue, takes on the Magpies at the MCG will be made later this week, but Kingsley said “if he trains, he plays” in what looms as a crucial decision.

Daicos, the Brownlow Medal favourite, was the subject of significant physical attention from the Swans last weekend in a bid to curb his influence, but it only resulted in a loss and thousands of dollars in fines for both teams from the resultant melees.

Kingsley knows he needs a plan to stop Daicos but was weighing up the worth of a hard tag, as well as the value of being overtly physical, which he’ll leave up to his players to decide.

“It’s not something that I’ve given our players a directive to do,” he said on Wednesday.

“It‘s not reflective of the way I think it should be done. It’s more important to be physical when the ball is live and the player has the chance to win the ball.

“The players might have a different view, though, and if so that’s their responsibility, I won’t stand in their way.

“I’m not sure which way we’ll go. Whether that’s a full-blown tag, whether it’s trying to rough him up, I’m not sure that that necessarily works either.”

Kingsley also said he’d not thought about the potential for Greene, should be play, to be booed by Collingwood fans after the outcry over their booing of Swans superstar Lance Franklin last week.

“I’m not sure of the value of it. All you had to do was look at Darcy Moore at the end of the game and see how it made him feel, the captain of the club … you’re making the players feel really uncomfortable,” he said.

While he waits for the green light to pick Greene, Kingsley will be locking in key defender Jack Buckley, who has also re-signed with the club for a further three years, adding to one of 2023’s feel-good stories.

Buckley has become the No.1-ranked defender in the AFL, lifting in the absence of All-Australian Sam Taylor and having battled his way back from a 623-day absence following a serious knee injury in 2021 to play every game this season.

The 25-year-old, who started his AFL journey as a category B rookie and made his debut in 2020, said the long lay-off made him a better player and a better person.

“Definitely a really hard time of my life, for sure, but it’s probably helped me in coming back this year, just how grateful I am to be back out there, and you can’t take it for granted at all,” he said.

“I’ve learnt a lot about resilience and how to keep my body right to be out there this year.

“To be in a position to sign a three-year deal is massive for me and my family and just being able to stay at this club and play here for the next three years and hopefully more beyond that.

“I’m just grateful to be able to give back to the club.”

Originally published as GWS coach won’t stop players if they want to rough up Collingwood’s Nick Daicos