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0 Geelong champion Jimmy Bartel has declared there is no issue with Collingwood premiership star Josh Daicos attending the Grand Prix’s Glamour on the Grid event on the eve of their next match.
Collingwood face St Kilda on Thursday night, hoping to put to rest suggestions that they are suffering a premiership hangover, after starting their season 0-2 with losses to GWS and Sydney.
Darcy Moore and Scott Pendlebury were also invited to the event at Albert Park on Wednesday night.
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The questions surrounding Daicos began to bubble after V/AFL great Leigh Matthews, who coached Brisbane to three flags in 2001-2003, slammed Magpies players caught watching the screening of their 2023 premiership documentary before their game against Sydney in round one.
“It’s a lovely memory, but you’ve got to be able to get yourself in the present,” Matthews said on Nine’s Footy Furnace on Sunday night.
“My players wouldn’t be doing that.”
But Bartel believes there is nothing wrong with Daicos’ approach to their round two match, attending the Grand Prix event as an ambassador.
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“I have got zero issue. His performance stacks up, we’ve seen that in the last few years,” Bartel said on Nine’s Footy Classified on Wednesday night.
“Players have got to have lives, as long as they front up to training and train hard, play hard.”
Eddie McGuire says he also doesn’t see the problem with Daicos attending the “controlled” event.
It comes after former Collingwood small forward Jack Ginnivan came under fire for attending the races the night before the 2023 grand final, before winning the flag and then being traded to Hawthorn just weeks later.
“I would have no issue because it is a very controlled atmosphere. A black tie event (Glamour on the Grid),” McGuire said.
“As long as he’s home in bed by 9.30pm, which I’m assuming that’s the case.
“He’s there with his girlfriend, he’s in an ambassador role.
“Ginnivan, don’t forget he had a cocaine charge last year, he’s going to the races at Moonee Valley.”
There are fears that if the Pies do lose the St Kilda at the MCG on Thursday, the blame will land on Daicos for attending this event the night before.
“If the Pies get done tomorrow and he doesn’t get a kick, you know what’s coming,” McGuire said.
Bartel says if Collingwood do lose, it would be poor to lay blame on Diacos for attending the unrelated event the night before.
“It’s pretty low hanging fruit,” he said.
Matthew Lloyd also agreed that Daicos attending an event may be a good stress relief, reflecting on a time he waivered from routine to help get his game back on track.
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“When I hadn’t had a kick for four weeks, Lisa (Lloyd’s wife) said to me ‘I’ve got a Kylie Minogue concert to go to’, the night before a game. I said ‘I’ve got to play a game tomorrow’ and she said “well, you haven’t had a kick for four weeks so why don’t you try something different?’,” Lloyd said.
“So, I went to the Kylie Minogue concert , the next day I kicked five (goals).”
Collingwood face St Kilda in Spud’s Game, in memory of Saints champion Danny ‘Spud’ Frawley, who died in 2019.
