Pies superstar Nick Daicos has conceded that criticism of his fitness during the opening round loss to the Giants because he cramped badly was warranted.

Speaking after Collingwood’s massive 91-point win over the Power at the MCG tonight, Daicos said that while he had tried not to pay attention to the critics, chief among them Channel Seven AFL analyst Kane Cornes, he did not deny that the criticism was accurate.

Daicos, who had 26 touches in a win that could propel the 2023 flag winners on a tear early in the season, said they played a “fun” brand of footy and he had “blocked out all the noise” during the week.

But he did admit the criticism was valid and that drove his performance tonight when asked point blank about his cramping.

“While last week was super disappointing we just got back to work this week on the training track,” he said.

“I stayed off socials this week and just wanted to get back to work. It was very abnormal for me to be cramping, especially so early. I just wanted to prepare as well as I could.

“I tried to block out all the noise however I do pride myself on my professionalism so I thought it was quite disappointing to be cramping and thought a lot the comments were fair enough.

“So it was on me to come out, really drive the pressure and run tonight and I thought I was able to do that.”

On Wednesday Collingwood coach Craig McRae leapt to his defence, declaring the star midfielder’s cramping woes last week were a result of “off-the-chart” running.

The Magpies faded badly in Sunday’s 52-point loss to GWS, conceding six of the last seven goals of the match to mark a poor start to the season.

The big fadeout was in stark contrast to previous years when the Magpies built a reputation for their ability to run over opposition sides, especially in close matches.

The sight of Daicos cramping in the first half against GWS raised some external alarm bells, but McRae was quick to brush them aside.

“I know he cramped and it’s such an anomaly for him. We’ve never seen him cramp before,” McRae said of Daicos, who finished with 21 disposals for the match.

“But when you look at his GPS in the first half, it was off the charts.

“I’ve never seen anyone run as hard for as long as he did in that first half.

“His high-speed running was like next level. No one in the competition would probably match that.

“So we’ve got to protect him from himself sometimes.”

With AAP