AFL fans are blowing up after Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos was nominated for the Goal of the Year award twice.
The AFL released the top three goals from the 2024 season with two of Daicos’ goals included, as well as one from West Coast prodigy Harley Reid.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: AFL releases Goal of the Year finalists.
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Daicos was nominated for his effort against Gold Coast where he started an incredible chain from the centre square.
Receiving a handball from brother Josh, Daicos had two short kicks in the chain before getting the ball and weaving his way through traffic and then finishing on the run.
A similar running goal against Brisbane was also nominated. Pouncing on a loose ball in the centre circle, Daicos shrugged a would-be tackler, took two bounces and sprinted clear of two Lions before kicking truly from around 40m out.
Reid is also in the running for his goal against Melbourne in just the ninth game of his career. The emerging superstar won a centre clearance and powered away from Demon Christian Petracca with three bounces before kicking the goal from just inside the 50m arc.
Fans were left a little underwhelmed by the goals, especially Daicos’ effort against Brisbane, which wasn’t even picked for the goal of the round.
After the season, the 25 round winners, along with five extra contenders determined by AFL Media, are presented to the AFL’s game analysis committee (which also selects the All-Australian team).
The best three were then based on a 5-4-3-2-1 vote by each member of the committee. The overall winner will be again decided by the committee (10 votes), along with the public opinion, which counts as one vote.
Fans were quick to highlight what they thought were better goals, such as Bayley Fritsch’s match-winning dribbler against Geelong, Marcus Bontempelli’s tough snap while being tackled against Fremantle and Zach Merrett’s miracle snap against St Kilda.
There was also Adam Treloar’s boundary line effort against Richmond and Ashton Moir’s incredible soccer volley against West Coast.
The AFL released the goals on their X account, which quickly drew plenty of reaction with fans accusing the league of being biased.
“AFL trying to hand a bloke goal of the year because his peers didn’t see him as a top 3 player and he won’t win the Brownlow,” one fan said.
“If it was anyone else not named Nick Daicos, that goal wouldn’t even be here. His PR team is hall of fame level,” another added.
“The bias couldn’t be more obvious,” another said
“I can assure you that if it was anyone other than Daicos kicking those goals, they wouldn’t have been nominated. Probably the worst 3 GOTY contenders I’ve seen,” another said.
“They’re good goals but if they were scored by anyone other than Daicos and Reid they wouldn’t be nominated guaranteed,” another added.
Fans also took aim at the “basic” selection of goals, which were all similar.
“These aren’t the best 3 goals of the year surely,” another said.
“Crikey… what a let down. None of those are amazing,” another added
“All 3 of these are so basic. What was your criteria for selecting these? My lord what a joke,” another said.
“Ugh.. really? This is our best three? Maybe we should recognise the top 10 instead of just three? Supporters would (hopefully) see a better spread of goals they remember as being great across the year, and not be so disappointed that two are from the same player,” another added.
“Sorry, is this the goal of the year award or the fitness and speed award? 30-50% of players could do this in the right circumstances. Show us some actually impressive ones please,” another said.
“Are we actually serious? Bursting out of the centre past a couple players and finishing from inside 50 is the GOTY candidate?” another added.
The AFL also released the Mark of the Year contenders with two more Collingwood players in the running.
Jamie Elliott and Bobby Hill were both nominated, along with North Melbourne young gun Zane Duursma.
