IF NICK Daicos doesn’t have six Brownlow Medal votes from the first fortnight, the Collingwood young gun will have five, but it is the arrival of the man who took Charlie home in 2018 that has helped the Magpies immediately address a huge problem.
Craig McRae’s men rose from 17th in 2021 to finish within a kick of a Grand Final appearance in his first season at the helm, despite being smashed at stoppage.
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Collingwood was ranked 13th for clearances (35.2 per game), 16th for clearance differential (-4.3 per game) ahead of only West Coast and Hawthorn, and 17th for contested possessions (-10) ahead of only West Coast in 2022.
Magpies GM Graham Wright addressed this in October when he went and recruited Tom Mitchell for the second time. This time at Collingwood, after previously pinching him from Sydney when he was at Hawthorn.
Mitchell arrived at the AIA Centre in the dying minutes of deadline day, following a three-way trade that paved a way for Ollie Henry to head to Geelong and sent former first-round pick Cooper Stephens to Hawthorn.
The Magpies essentially received pick No.25 for Henry and gave up two third-round picks for – picks No.41 and 50 – for the ball-magnet who won three Peter Crimmins Medals and polled 97 Brownlow votes in the five seasons he played at Hawthorn. He missed all of 2019 with that horrific broken leg.
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Two games is a small sample size, but the Magpies are ranked No.1 for contested possession differential (+31) and No.2 for clearance differential (+10) in 2023, following a brilliant first fortnight that has seen the Magpies defeat reigning premier Geelong and then demolish Port Adelaide by 71 points on Saturday on the back of a whopping +57 contested ball win.
While Jordan De Goey collected ten coaches votes against the Cats and the younger Daicos earned nine following his 32-disposal, two-goal effort on Saturday – Josh Daicos has polled in both games – Mitchell only has one vote from the first two rounds.
But it is no longer about votes or how many touches the dual All-Australian gets.
The 29-year-old has collected 48 disposals across the first two rounds, small fry for a guy who has amassed more than that figure in a single game three times – twice 50-plus against Collingwood – and someone who has amassed 30 or more disposals in 82 of his 173 games (47.4 per cent) for a career average of 29.4 touches per game.
He is ranked equal fourth in the AFL for contested possessions (30) alongside Patrick Cripps and fourth for clearances (18) behind only Darcy Parish, Luke Davies-Uniacke and Matt Rowell, No.5 for groundball gets, first possession and centre clearances.
Mitchell finished with 10 clearances and 14 contested possessions from his 21 touches against Geelong in round one, to go with two goals and four tackles. Then he collected eight clearances and 16 contested possessions from 27 disposals against the Power on Saturday afternoon. He also collected 28 disposals and 16 contested possessions in the practice match against Hawthorn.
After being squeezed out of Sam Mitchell’s plans at Waverley Park – Mitchell attended only 53 per cent of centre bounces in 2022 – the midfielder has been thrown back in there at Collingwood, attending 45 centre bounces in the first fortnight, behind only Darcy Cameron and Scott Pendlebury at the club, who have both been to 47.
Collingwood doesn’t have another player in the top 30 for clearances, while Cameron is the only other Pie in the top 30 for contested possessions.
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The Magpies went and got Mitchell for a reason during the Trade Period. They don’t need him to get the ball 30 or 40 times. They need him to win clearances and be the source in tight for quality distributors on the outside.
Right now, Mitchell is living up to his end of the bargain. That trade could prove to be a bargain.
