Dear Josh Daicos

[RudeBoy]

Dear Josh,

let me first congratulate you on winning our Copeland Trophy and for your superb contribution to our 2023 Premiership team. Your dad was a football legend who gave me and thousands of Magpie fans, enormous joy throughout his career. Joined now by your brother Nick, the whole Daicos family are without doubt Collingwood royalty.

For this reason, it saddens me to have to write this message. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to do so, in the hope that you may read it and perhaps re-consider some of your public comments, upon returning from a visit to Tottenham Hotspurs FC in the UK.

Rather than simply being very impressed with the facilities and support structures given to soccer players overseas, you instead seemed to complain that you and other AFL players are severely underpaid by comparison. No doubt a part of you might be a little envious of the massive salaries paid to international soccer stars, but surely a bit of humility and appreciation of the privileged position you have as a highly paid AFL player would have been a better response. Furthermore, you might have even concluded that international soccer stars are paid obscene amounts of money, making even attending games, beyond the reach of most ordinary working people in the UK. It has become a sport for the elites, while the ordinary fans, whose working class families supported their teams for generations, are largely forced to watch on TV or at pubs. Even worse, while international soccer stars from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and other places, are paid tens of millions of dollars, the communities they came from are mired in abject poverty.

Also, while top AFL players are paid a half a million to a million dollars (sometimes more) a year, I would hope that you remember and acknowledge that this is fantastic money compared to the incomes received by most AFL supporters. The Magpie Army, you and our club continually acknowledge, are made up primarily of ordinary people on ordinary incomes, with many struggling to make ends meet. Nevertheless, they/we continually buy memberships and merchandise to help pay your salary. By the way, we are happy you are well paid. You deserve it.

So Josh, perhaps your comments about not being paid enough and not getting enough support - compared to UK soccer players - were simply naive thought bubbles, that in retrospect, you wish you hadn't aired. I certainly hope so.

Anyway, I still admire you and your brother for your incredible talents, and hope you help us on our way to back to back Flags in 2024.


From The Herald Sun 19 November.

Collingwood star Josh Daicos has spoken of the “disparity” in how English soccer stars and AFL footballers are paid and treated after visiting Aussie supercoach Ange Postecoglou in the UK.

The premiership Pie was blown away after meeting Postecoglou and touring the facilities of his English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur on a recent holiday.

“Going over to Europe and going to Tottenham, I saw the treatment they got and I was quite flat about the treatment we get,” Daicos said.
“It’s quite amazing the disparity in wealth over there."

[pietillidie]

What are the quotes to which you're referring?

[Pies4shaw]

The money our heroes are paid is trivial, given what they do. I'm not surprised he is appalled.

[pietillidie]

Is that quote you've added the extent of it? If so, you've read an awful lot into a couple of sentences, and then put the weight of a tangle of extremely complex issues few people grasp and even fewer know how to resolve on the shoulders of a lad trying to enjoy a well-deserved holiday.

Is that reasonable, or is there more to which you're privy?

[Harrysz]

RudeBoy, you're entitled to your opinion of course but in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with what Josh said. There's far more money in sport overseas than in Australia. We have a much smaller population and our history is different. A sportsperson from Australia travelling overseas might witness the difference and feel "flat" for a while. That's natural. It doesn't mean that Josh is any less committed to Australian Football in general or to Collingwood in particular.

[Take_a_Screamer]

Here's an earlier article...

Aussies outraged over Ange Postecoglou photo with Collingwood gun
A photo of the former Celtic manager meeting with Collingwood star Josh Daicos in London this week has put Carlton fans in an awkward position.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/aussies-outraged-over-ange-postecoglou-photo-with-collingwood-gun/news-story/f5ba94681f0941b8dc64b5fbad1bc08a

Video: AFL star Josh Daicos visits Tottenham Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou
Footy star Josh Daicos visits Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou on luxury Euro holiday and reveals how his incredible run at Tottenham is inspiring Collingwood
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sport/video-3052157/Video-AFL-star-Josh-Daicos-visits-Tottenham-Spurs-boss-Ange-Postecoglou.html

[think positive]

[think positive]

[mgh3536]

Youthful naivety …

[Kingsofclutch]

[scoobydoo]

Stupid cancel culture
He wasn’t complaining but explaining.
They spend 10k to heat the ground the afl has taken 20 yrs to get marvel ground ‘close’ to being ok.

[shawthing]

Good op.

Australian sports people need to realise the disparity in market size between Australia, the USA and Europe. We simply can't sustain that kind of money.

By the way, neither can the EPL! The wages bills in the EPL are suicidal and only sustained because of the basic sellout of English clubs to Arab oil money. That's NOT an attack on Arab people, but it is a slight on the way their money is gained and abused - modern slavery, oppression of minorities (especially religious), women, etc. It's blood money keeping the EPL afloat because they are in over their heads.

Every day I wake up thanking the Heavens that in Australia we have avoided the tragedy of private club ownership. Because believe me if the AFL went down that path, it wouldn't be the Dr Edelsten's of this world, but Qatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia buying our sport.

So Josh, be careful what you wish for. We'd hate to lose our independence as a sporting code. The Globalist money trail is grubby and it destroys everything it lays its greedy hands on!

[Pies4shaw]

[think positive]

[Piesnchess]

Pommie soccer, all European soccer, sth America, etc, has always been huge, massive money, big big sponsorships, actually, its a bit obscene the massive millions they get, at a time many people struggle to put food on the table. But,its always been that way, overseas, with large populations, compared too here. Not just soccer, look at the tens of millions in tennis, like Djokovic makes, we are just small fry here really. But, our players, compared to many ordinary workers and battlers here, are still very well renumerated, really.