Peter Daicos

Peter Daicos

Peter Daicos in 2009
Personal information
Nickname(s) The Macedonian marvel
Date of birth (1961-09-20) 20 September 1961
Original team(s) Preston RSL
Debut Round 4, 1979, Collingwood
vs. St Kilda, at Victoria Park
Height 184 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 90 kg (198 lb)
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1979–1993 Collingwood 250 (549)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
Victoria 5 (12)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1993.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Peter Daicos (born 20 September 1961 in Fitzroy, Victoria) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played his entire 250-game career with the Collingwood Football Club in the VFL/AFL.

He is one of the greatest players in the history of the Australian Football League, being a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and was renowned for his consistent ability to kick freakish goals from seemingly impossible angles. During his 250-game career his league honours include a premiership, and kicking the Goal of the Year. He also represented his home state of Victoria a total of five times.

Daicos is considered to be one of Collingwood's all-time greats, being named in the club's Team of the Century, leading the club's goalkicking for five seasons, winning the best and fairest twice and playing in the club's drought breaking 1990 premiership.

Personal life

Daicos is commonly known as the Macedonian Marvel[1] because of his parents' place of origin who were both immigrants from the village of Vevi near Florina in northern Greece.[2]

He was raised in a family background with the Macedonian language spoken at home and church services attended on Sundays but with an important difference being his interest in Australian rules football instead of soccer, including playing with the school team whilst at Preston East High School.[3]

VFL/AFL Career

Peter debuted with the Collingwood Football Club in round 4, 1979, against St Kilda, in what was, at the time, the largest winning margin in VFL/AFL history (179 points).[4] He went on to play 250 games (for 549 goals) with the Magpies until his retirement in 1993, and won a premiership with them in 1990 opening the way by kicking Collingwood's first goal in that match.

In the 1990 season, Daicos scored 97 goals playing mostly from forward pocket, a feat made all the more remarkable since he was considerably shorter than many full-forwards of the era, and was not playing in the traditional position of a spearhead full-forward. His skills in scoring from impossible angles, as well as his ability to get rid of defenders, led pundits to start naming him The Magician.

In fact, one of his goals, drawing the 1990 Qualifying Final became the subject of a Toyota Memorable Moments advertisement, first screened in 2005.

In 1999 Daicos was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and in 2002 he was elected in the AFL Greek Team of the Century[5] reserved for players having full or partial Greek heritage.[6]

In 2005 Peter Daicos became coach at a local club called the Greythorn Falcons and in 2006 he coached them to an 80-point win in the Grand Final.

In 2007/08 he launched SportzStats,[7] a hybrid online/offline sports statistics tracking and diary system for junior players in various sports and as of 2009, he is also a weekly guest tipper on the Score Five Footy[8] tipping game.

In 2010 Daicos resumed commentating duties with the AFL Live radio team. Nowadays, his name is used by journalists and Australian football fans as an adjective to describe a difficult goal scored from the boundary in play; especially one that is along the ground (a 'Daicos goal').

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hill,Peter: "The Macedonians in Australia", page 132, Hesperian Press,1989
  2. ↑ http://www.magpies.net/nick/players/tribute/cddaicos.html
  3. ↑ Daicos : Collingwood and me / by Peter Daicos with Jake Niall, Kilmore, Vic. Floradale Productions, 1991
  4. ↑ "Collingwood v St Kilda - Sat, 28-Apr-1979 2:10pm". AFL Tables. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Tamis Anastasios: "The Greeks in Australia", page 104, La Trobe University, Victoria, 2005
  6. ↑ http://www.aussierulesinternational.com/home/world/europe/greece/greek_team_of_the_century
  7. ↑ http://www.sportzstats.com
  8. ↑ http://www.scorefivefooty.com
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