Prelim stage set for Nick Daicos and Will Ashcroft to stake claim as generation’s best | Martin Pegan
Collingwood star Nick Daicos is well on the way to putting together the most imperious first 100 games this century.It is arguably among the best starts to a career in the AFL-era, and only the unreliability of memory and difficulty in comparing one period to another should prevent Daicos from being ranked alongside the most immediately impactful players of all time.But there might already be a challenger to Daicos’s crown as Brisbane midfielder Will Ashcroft begins to stake a claim to being the best young footballer of this generation.With his sidesteps and swerves and arched lower back, Daicos is almost impossible to tackle once on the move.He rarely loses his feet and is tougher at the contest than opposition supporters might care to admit.
Since moving into the midfield, his clean hands and poise in possession have changed the way the Pies play,After 94 games, Daicos has already been a – if not the – critical part of a Magpies premiership side,He has earned individual accolades that could define a career,A Brownlow medal that has felt almost inevitable could finally be added to the 22-year-old’s haul of early career highlights as soon as Monday night,During finals sign up for our free weekly AFL newsletterDaicos bleeds black and white but he comes from blue blood – his father, Peter, is Collingwood royalty.
The “Macedonian Marvel” is a Magpies great who booted 549 goals in 250 matches and helped the club break a 32-year premiership drought.Nick is following in the footsteps of his father as well as his brother, Josh.The older brother, Josh, 26, has become a versatile and reliable piece of the Pies’ premiership-hunting puzzle.The Magpies have benefited more than most from the father-son rule.But in the preliminary final on Saturday, the Daicos brothers and Collingwood will face the reigning premiers with their own share of father-son spoils.
Namely, Will and Levi Ashcroft, after their father, Marcus, was an unsung hero across more than 300 games when Brisbane transformed from the easybeat Bears into the triple premiership-winning Lions.Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL WeeklyJonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL storiesafter newsletter promotionWill Ashcroft arrived at the Lions a year after Nick Daicos joined the Magpies and might have been on a similar trajectory if not for a serious knee injury halfway through his debut season.Despite spending almost a year out of the game , the 21-year-old has a body of work that can rival the Magpies’ son-of-a-gun better than most.Ashcroft has only played 56 matches in three seasons but is in the conversation as the top emerging talent in the game – especially when he steps on to a finals stage.Daicos is rightly one of the most acclaimed players in the game, but Will has had his measure across the six finals that each of them have played – without crossing paths before this Saturday.
The Lions midfielder has averaged 26.2 disposals, 10.8 contested possessions and 5.2 clearances a game at the pointy end of the season.Daicos’s numbers are narrowly behind at 25.
7, 7.7 and 2.3.The Pies’ midfielder kicked the opening goal of the 2023 grand final, played a pivotal role in a match-turning centre clearance in the dying stages, and was among the best afield.Ashcroft went a step further just a year later with 30 disposals and a goal as Brisbane trounced Sydney and he became the youngest Norm Smith medallist in the AFL-era.
Ashcroft plays with a similar polish to Daicos when he has the ball in his hands and can find a touch more grunt when it is there to be won.That helps the Brisbane midfielder lift his impact as the stakes rise at this time of year, as does playing with a chip on his shoulder.Gold Coast picked the wrong target when they questioned his Norm Smith medal-winning credentials during a pre-season game earlier this year.The young Lion had the final word with a performance that even surpassed his display in last year’s decider as he helped to end the Suns’ season last week.Younger brother Levi Ashcroft is one of the AFL’s most-talented prospects and in the running for this year’s rising star award.
The 18-year-old has played every game for the Lions and averaged 19.4 disposals in his debut season while mostly playing out of position on a wing.Like Will has had to do, Levi is being made to bide his time before joining an onball brigade that threatens to dominate the competition for years to come.The Daicos and Ashcroft brothers are likely to spend time lining up against each other and perhaps even going head-to-head across their preliminary final.Whether one or more of the Magpies’ brothers in arms, or the siblings from the sunshine state, can rise to the occasion will have a huge bearing on the result on Saturday.
But the debate over which brotherly duo is better, is one that fans will get to enjoy for the next decade.
Temu’s UK operation doubles revenues and pre-tax profits
The UK operation of the Chinese online marketplace Temu doubled revenues and pre-tax profits last year, as British consumers snapped up products offered by the super-budget retailer.Temu UK reported revenues of $63.3m (£46.4m) last year, almost double the $32m in 2023, while pre-tax profits similarly surged from $2m to $3.9m, accounts show
Memes and nihilistic in-jokes: the online world of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer
On the day that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson shot and the killed rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, prosecutors say, he texted his roommate to confess what he had done. While appearing to admit to the murder and describe how he was planning to retrieve his gun, he pivoted to mention why he had carved messages into the ammunition.“Remember how I was engraving bullets? The fuckin messages are mostly a big meme,” Robinson texted, according to authorities.Robinson’s shooting of Kirk has put the spotlight on the intersection of political violence and an increasingly nihilistic online world that promotes misinformation and extremism. It’s a confluence that raises fundamental questions about how internet culture influences both extremist attacks and how we understand them, at a time when some of the biggest online spaces are increasingly more divisive and less moderated
ChatGPT developing age-verification system to identify under-18 users after teen death
OpenAI will restrict how ChatGPT responds to a user it suspects is under 18, unless that user passes the company’s age estimation technology or provides ID, after legal action from the family of a 16-year-old who killed himself in April after months of conversations with the chatbot.OpenAI was prioritising “safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens”, chief executive Sam Altman said in a blog post on Tuesday, stating “minors need significant protection”.The company said that the way ChatGPT responds to a 15-year-old should look different to the way it responds to an adult.Altman said OpenAI plans to build an age-prediction system to estimate age based on how people use ChatGPT, and if there is doubt, the system will default to the under-18 experience. He said some users “in some cases or countries” may also be asked to provide ID to verify their age
How memes, gaming and internet culture all relate to the Charlie Kirk shooting
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Dara Kerr here, filling in for Blake Montgomery, who promises he’ll come back from vacation. Meanwhile, I’m looking at the memes, gaming and internet culture behind the shooting of Charlie Kirk.The bullet that killed conservative activist was inscribed with a message: “Notices bulge OwO whats this?” The online world quickly recognized the reference. It’s a phrase used in internet culture to troll people in online role-play communities, specifically furries (a subculture that cosplays as anthropomorphic animal characters)
How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities | Letter
In discussing generative artificial intelligence (‘It’s going to be a life skill’: educators discuss the impact of AI on university education, 13 September) you appear to underestimate the challenges that large language model (LLM) tools such as ChatGPT present to higher education. The argument that mastering AI is a life skill that students need in preparation for the labour market is unconvincing. Our experience is that generative AI undermines teaching and learning, bypasses reflection and criticality, and deflects students from reading original material.Student misuse of generative AI is widespread. Claims that AI helps preparation or research is simply cover for students taking shortcuts that do not develop their learning skills
Top UK artists urge Starmer to protect their work on eve of Trump visit
Leading British artists including Mick Jagger, Kate Bush and Paul McCartney have urged Keir Starmer to stand up for creators’ human rights and protect their work ahead of a UK-US tech deal during Donald Trump’s visit.In a letter to the prime minister, they argued Labour had failed to defend artists’ basic rights by blocking attempts to force artificial intelligence firms to reveal what copyrighted material they have used in their systems.Senior figures in US tech are accompanying the US president on his state visit, where an announcement is expected on a UK-US tech pact covering areas including AI.Elton John, one of the letter’s signatories, said government proposals to let AI companies train their systems on copyright-protected work without permission “leaves the door wide open for an artist’s life work to be stolen”.“We will not accept this,” he added
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