Nick Daicos accused of 'pathetic' act as Taylor Duryea caught in awkward post-match moment

Nick Daicos has come under fire over his reaction to an off-the-ball incident with Taylor Duryea in Collingwood's loss to the Western Bulldogs on Friday night. Duryea was reported after lashing out with his arm and appeared to hit Daicos in the face after the two tangled behind the play.

Discussing the incident on Channel 7, Brian Taylor said there didn't appear to be much in it. “There wasn’t a lot of intent,” Taylor said. “I reckon that would be at the minor end of any penalty.”

Matthew Richardson added: “It felt like a bit of a shrug, but the umpire was right there. While AFL reporter Jon Ralph said at half-time: “The AFL doesn’t like it when players throw their arms or elbows back, we certainly see Nick Daicos hit high here and maybe you could say he makes the most of it. I think it’s low impact, only careless, so I think it fits really comfortably as a fine.”

As Ralph pointed out, Daicos appeared to 'make the most' of the contact and went to ground very easily. The young gun has been criticised in the past for seemingly 'staging' for free kicks and ducking into tackles, and he once again copped backlash over the Duryea incident on Thursday night. Many took to social media to describe Daicos' reaction as 'pathetic' and 'embarrassing' considering there didn't appear to be much contact.

As for Duryea, the Bulldogs player was staying tight-lipped when asked about the incident after the game. There were some awkward scenes on Channel 7 when Duryea was standing directly in the background as Mitch Cleary and Abbey Holmes discussed the Daicos clash.

Holmes could be seen looking rather sheepish that Duryea was in ear-shot, before asking him directly what his thoughts were. "I can't comment can I?" Duryea said with a smile. The Bulldogs player later escaped suspension and was hit with a $2500 fine instead.

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Sam Darcy cops suspension over Brayden Maynard hit

The same can't be said of teammate Sam Darcy. The young gun was brilliant for the Dogs and kicked the match-sealing goal, but has copped a two-match suspension over a nasty hit on Brayden Maynard in the first quarter.

Darcy clattered into Maynard as the Collingwood player was tracking back to take a mark, leaving him sprawled on the ground. Maynard was able to keep playing and passed concussion tests, but Darcy was still slapped with a ban after the incident was classified as careless conduct, high impact and high contact.

“I think he’ll be suspended for two weeks," Ralph said earlier. "I think it fits really comfortably in that two-week region. He turns his body, he clearly makes shoulder contact to the head, he takes his eyes off the football. It is less than Peter Wright who concussed Harry Cunningham which was a four-week ban, but it’s more than Toby Greene on Jordan Boyd which was only a week.

“Careless, high impact, high force is two weeks. Severe impact would have been if Maynard did not pass the SCAT test. It’s only two weeks if he gets underneath that threshold. I don’t think it’ll be more than two weeks.”

Garry Lyon added: “It’s the fine line between playing with a presence. He’s tipped over the wrong side there and he’ll pay the price for it. That’s the part there that he’ll probably get himself in trouble for - when he ducked his shoulder, he probably could’ve thrown in his arm for a spoil."