OISIN Mullin started the week watching his Gaelic Football team Mayo end a 75-year All-Ireland title drought from the other side of the world in the early hours of Monday morning. But on Thursday night at the MCG, the Irishman will be out to stop the most formidable force in football when he tags Nick Daicos.

Surely you've heard the MidWest Radio commentary by now? 'The famine is over, the famine is over, the curse be damned' line quickly travelled out of Croke Park in Dublin and went viral.

Mullin played in losing All-Ireland finals in 2020 and 2021 – which extended Mayo's run to 11 since the mythical curse started after the 1951 triumph – and was named the GAA young player of the year twice before joining Geelong.

The Cats contemplated allowing Mullin the chance to play in that game after County Mayo coach Andy Moran asked the question, like they did with Mark O’Connor, although that was in January. 

But with a job on Kysaiah Pickett last Friday night and Daicos this Thursday night, Mullin has become too important to his club to entertain that request, especially at this time of the season. 

Mullin has entrenched himself as the best tagger in the AFL in 2026, backing up a great 2025 with an even better season to date. Scott has given him a role in 16 games this year and he is rated No. 1 by Champion Data in a defensive rating that measures expected output of your opponent (based on average AFL Player ratings points) to the job performed in the match-up.  

The 26-year-old shut down some big names last year in Touk Miller, Errol Gulden and Tim Taranto, before his magnificent job on Hugh McCluggage in the qualifying final and Grand Final. 

But this year he has claimed some even bigger scalps in Marcus Bontempelli, Zak Butters, Harry Sheezel, Isaac Heeney, Lachie Neale, Christian Petracca, Finn Callaghan, Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera and Nick Daicos.  

Geelong sent Mullin to Daicos back in round nine and the Irishman collected seven coaches votes after restricting the Brownlow Medal favourite’s output. 

Daicos still finished with 29 disposals – his second-lowest count of 2026 – but 79% were in the defensive half and he only had four score involvements and two clearances.

Mullin held him to 28 touches across 110 minutes in their head-to-head battle in 2025, while Tom Atkins did the job on him in 2024. Geelong won all three games against Collingwood and Daicos didn’t poll a coaches vote in any of them.

Nick Daicos against Geelong

On the other side of the equation, Ed Allan has emerged as a weapon for Craig McRae to deploy across the past two months. 

The 2022 first-round pick is now a regular senior player at the Magpies and continued his run of stopping opposition stars when he nullified Jordan Dawson across the first three quarters before being cut free late, where he kicked two important goals for Collingwood.

Allan looks destined for a more pure inside midfield role in future, but in 2026 he has nailed the role as a tagger and looks set for a job on Bailey Smith on Thursday night.