During a media conference on Monday, Naitanui was remarkably asked six minutes of questions relating to Daw.
While he was keen to stress he’s unlikely to spend much time against the Kangaroos’ big man on Friday night, the ruckman can understand the hype.
“I haven’t seen a bigger man. He’s just so ripped. He’s a big man. He’s probably going to scare a few guys out there when he’s playing,” Naitanui said.
“He moves well. As you’ve seen the last few weeks he can take a good grab and obviously jump pretty high.”
Having met the Sudanese-born Daw on several occasions as a fellow AFL Multicultural ambassador, Naitanui can’t doubt his ability.
“He does some special stuff. I always knew he had that in him,” Naitanui said.
“I saw he had that talent. He’s been around for a while now. I’ve seen a bit of vision of him playing as well. I’ve seen one where he ran from deep in the back pocket and ran to full-forward and kicked a goal. If you get a chance, YouTube that.
“He’ll be an exciting player to watch over the years.”
The Fijian-born Naitanui can relate to the hype surrounding Daw, quickly becoming a poster-boy for West Coast following his debut in 2009.
He believes having a level head is pivotal.
“I think it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for North Melbourne as a footy club as well… just to take it in his stride, not too get carried away with it. At the end of the day your job’s just to play footy, and play consistent footy.”
Daw was integral for the Kangaroos in their 54-point win against the Bulldogs, but is sure to attract plenty of attention from an experienced West Coast back six.
“It’ll be a tough one for him this week up against Glassy (Darren Glass) or big Eric McKenzie, so hopefully they do the job and limit him to one or two goals.
“He’ll come in and probably pinch hit, play up forward the majority. It’s more Goldstein we’ll look at this week in the ruck from mine and Coxy’s (Dean Cox) perspective.”
