Collingwood coach Craig McRae expects Nick Daicos to attract plenty more taggers but has backed his young star to handle the extra attention after his influential role in a 71-point rout of Port Adelaide.
Daicos brushed off opponents Lachie Jones and Sam Powell-Pepper, and kicked a goal that would make his mercurial father proud, in the Magpies' 21.9 (135) to 9.10 (64) victory at the MCG.
The 20-year-old booted two majors from a game-high 32 disposals as a nine-goal run by the home side broke the game open before halftime.
"Nick's a great player, an emerging talent, so we've got to embrace it," McRae said.
"I said to Nick this is probably coming and we want to support him as a team ... but he's got an incredible ability to play multiple roles, which makes him hard to tag.
"This is just the natural progression of a player that's an emerging talent.
"All the best players have to go through this, this is part of his journey right now."
Brody Mihocek kicked three goals before being substituted out with a dislocated finger and Jamie Elliott was among five players who kicked two each as the Magpies posted their biggest score since 2018.
Collingwood dominated contested possession (+57) and clearances (+13), and even won the tackle count (+18) in a sign of their intense pressure around the ball.
Daicos started the game in his customary role at half-back and had periods on a wing and through the midfield as he tried to shake his taggers.
He extracted the biggest roar from the 60,744-strong crowd - the highest-ever attendance for a home-and-away clash between the two sides - with a stunning goal during the Magpies' second-quarter surge.
Receiving a handpass from Daniel McStay, Daicos dished the ball off to Scott Pendlebury, received it back through the veteran's instinctive flick over his head, brushed a tackle and straightened up before steering his shot straight through the middle.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley didn't mince words in his assessment of the tagging experiment.
"Nick won. He was pretty good," Hinkley said.
"We went with him early and he's such a creative player and such a powerful runner.
"Everyone in the competition knows that but the challenge is to be able to put the clamps on him when they've got control like they did today.
"The difference will be what does the control look like if it's a 50-50 game.
"Nick's short career would suggest he handles most of it and I don't need to spend too much time on Nick, other than he got us bad today."
Josh Daicos (26 disposals, two goals) also had a big say as he featured in the Magpies' dominant midfield with Tom Mitchell (27 disposals, eight clearances), Steele Sidebottom (24, three), Jack Crisp (22, three), Taylor Adams (20, six) and Pendlebury (20, six).
Port Adelaide forward Charlie Dixon kicked two early goals - the first courtesy of a 50m penalty against ex-Power defender Billy Frampton - and the lead changed hands five times in the opening exchanges.
But a five-goal burst in 11 minutes gave Collingwood a 23-point buffer at quarter-time, which grew to 55 before the main break.
Hinkley called on Travis Boak to give his side a lift, injecting the veteran into the game as the substitute early in the third quarter, and the visitors narrowly won the term.
The final quarter belonged to Collingwood, however, as they piled on six goals to one.
Boak had 11 disposals in his first game back after an interrupted pre-season but Port Adelaide had few winners, with Dixon (three) and Todd Marshall (two) both kicking multiple goals.
Scott Lycett (poked eye) was cleared of serious damage and Connor Rozee passed a concussion test but had little influence.
