Peter Daicos

Peter Daicos
Personal information
Original team(s)	Preston
Debut	Round 4, 1979, Collingwood vs. St.Kilda, at Victoria Park
Height / weight	184cm / 84kg
Playing career1
Collingwood (1977-94) 250 Games, 549 goals
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1994.
Career highlights
Collingwood Copeland Trophy winner 1982, 1988 Collingwood leading goalkicker 1981, 1982, 1990, 1991, 1992 Collingwood Premiership side 1990 Collingwood Team of the Century Team of the Year 1982, 1988, 1990 Victorian representative (5 games, 12 goals) Goal of the Year 1991 AFL Hall of Fame member
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Peter Daicos (born 20 September 1961 in Fitzroy, Victoria) is a former Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL.

Commonly known as the Macedonian Marvel because of his parents' place of origin, the mulleted Daicos is known as one of the most exciting footballers of all time - with an incredible knack to score goals from seemingly impossible angles, and at crucial game-defining moments.

Daicos debuted with the Collingwood Football Club in 1979, recruited from Preston. He went on to play 250 games (for 549 goals) with the Magpies until his retirement in 1993. By far his best season in the VFL/AFL was in 1990 when his beloved Magpies won a long awaited premiership. Daicos scored 97 goals playing mostly from full-forward, a feat made all the more remarkable since he was considerably shorter than many full-forwards of the era. His heroics in scoring a difficult goal, drawing the 1990 Qualifying Final became the subject of a Toyota Memorable Moments advertisement, first screened in 2005. Daicos also kicked Collingwood's first goal in the 1990 Grand Final settling the nerves of the Magpie side which had been struggling up until that point.

Nowadays, his name is used as an adjective to describe a difficult goal scored from the boundary in play (a 'Daicos goal').

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 reserved for AFL players having full or partial Greek heritage.

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.

Ethnicity

The matter of Daicos' ethnicity is debated between Slavophone Greeks and Aegean Macedonians. Both consider Peter as one of their own.

The only certain fact is that his parents are immigrants from the village of Vevi, near Florina in now-a-days Greece; who are bilingual in Greek and Slavic Language.

Although Peter defines himself as "Macedonian", he accepted to be named vice-captain of the Greek Team of the Century "to honour the sacrifices that my parents made".

Career highlights

Playing career:

• Collingwood 1979-1993 (Games: 250 Goals: 549)

Player honors:

• Collingwood best and fairest 1982, 1988
• Collingwood leading goalkicker 1981, 1982, 1990, 1991, 1992
• Collingwood premiership 1990
• Victorian representative (5 games, 12 goals)
• 1991 Goal of the Year.
• Member of the Greek Team of the Century

YJFL Premiership Coach 2006

See also

• Peter Daicos web site
• List of VFL/AFL players by ethnicity
• Peter Daicos Toyota Commercial
• Profile on fullpointsfooty.net
• Peter Daicos's playing statistics from AFL Tables

References

• Ross, John (1999). The Australian Football Hall of Fame. Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers. p. 143. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• AFL: Hall of Fame