Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach (Part 2) - Full Support of the Board

[TubbsFarquhar]

It's a long season, I think most of you are jumping the gun.

At least your not stuck with a Hinkley like coach.

Nick's will be classed a mastermind once you beat Port in both showdowns again.

Nicks is worse than Hinkley, which says a lot.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Bargaining stage of grief?

It is. I don't blame him though. It's either that, or walking away from the club for the next few years.

 

[maxlilly]

Maybe this is the down year teams inevitably have (geelong Richmond Melbourne)

We are looking more like Freo at the minute

 

[Scorpus]

Give me back Brenton Sanderson

Brenton Sanderson

Age

50

Ht

185cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.7

4star

K

11.0

4star

HB

4.6

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

22.4

5star

K

16.0

5star

HB

6.4

4star

M

6.4

5star

T

1.6

4star

At least he had Matt and Brad Crouch

5

Brad Crouch

Age

31

Ht

186cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

26.1

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

14.0

5star

M

2.7

3star

T

5.5

5star

CL

5.0

5star

D

20.3

5star

K

11.1

4star

HB

9.1

5star

M

1.5

2star

T

3.9

5star

CL

4.6

5star

D

21.6

5star

K

10.0

4star

HB

11.6

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

4.2

5star

CL

2.6

5star

as starting mids in their 2nd/3rd season despite already having Sloane, Dangerfield, Thompson and Douglas

 

[Pugsley]

Nicks is worse than Robert Shaw.

Knowing a former Crows player, when the team were well behind in a match, Shaw would just stand there silently.
I could imagine Nicks doing that if he didn't have assistants.

 

[GreyCrow]

Give me back Brenton Sanderson

At least he had Matt and Brad Crouch as starting mids in their 2nd/3rd season despite already having Sloane, Dangerfield, Thompson and Douglas

Someone mentioned the 2017 mids so I went back to the GF side

Both Matt and Brad started alongside Sloane. Laird and Douglas

Which shows to me the benefit of throwing draftees into the side early

 

[Shuestar13]

It is. I don't blame him though. It's either that, or walking away from the club for the next few years.

Sanders is a fairly astute poster and although I may termed a dreamer and or delusional in some of my more positive thoughts at times, I am with him There would definitely be clauses, KPI’s in Nicks’s new contract. You don’t sign up a coach that is now entering his 5th season and not yet made it to finals and basically say, here you go, here’s another two years and no consequences for not meeting benchmarks.
I honestly don’t think Olsen for one would agree to that.

I totally understand the scepticism given past history, but look at the coaching landscape now, contracts are now seemingly quite rubbery for want of a better word.

I genuinely think if things go bad and there are no mitigating circumstances (bad injury run to key players, a series of what could be considered ‘unlucky’ results etc) then he may well be gone at seasons end. “They’ll say - at the time of his (extension), we believed he was the man for the job, however the results produced this season were not at the level that was desired or expected. We believe that a change in leadership is required etc”.

Again I put my hand up of being delusional, but hey you’ve got to have hope

As it stands, I don’t for think for one minute that Nicks or the board are sitting comfortably today, they would know full well the heat is on. He (Nicks) can turn it around, a simple start would be making a couple of needed changes at selection, changing the midfield set up and simplifying the message - next week, go out and play. Get back to the attacking, positive football which was on show last year. Hope isn’t lost, but it’s up to him

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Sanders is a fairly astute poster and although I may termed a dreamer and or delusional in some of my more positive thoughts at times, I am with him There would definitely be clauses, KPI’s in Nicks’s new contract. You don’t sign up a coach that is now entering his 5th season and not yet made it to finals and basically say, here you go, here’s another two years and no consequences for not meeting benchmarks.
I honestly don’t think Olsen for one would agree to that.

I totally understand the scepticism given past history, but look at the coaching landscape now, contracts are now seemingly quite rubbery for want of a better word.

I genuinely think if things go bad and there are no mitigating circumstances (bad injury run to key players, a series of what could be considered ‘unlucky’ results etc) then he will be gone at seasons end. “They’ll say - at the time of his (extension), we believed he was the man for the job, however the results produced this season were not at the level that was desired or expected. We believe that a change in leadership is required etc”.

Again I put my hand up of being delusional, but hey you’ve got to have hope

As it stands, I don’t for think for one minute that Nicks or the board are sitting comfortably today, they would know full well the heat is on. He (Nicks) can turn it around, a simple start would be making a couple of needed changes at selection, changing the midfield set up and simplifying the message - next week, go out and play. Get back to the attacking, positive football which was on show last year. Hope isn’t lost, but it’s up to him

To say it's delusional is a harsh way of describing it. I would call it clinging to a shred of hope.

The way the soft cap works, teams would be insane not to put exit clauses into contracts. It's just whether or not Adelaide's admin were drinking the same bathwater as the footy media and supporters which concerns me. They might have been caught flat footed and not expecting us to slide.

 

[Shuestar13]

To say it's delusional is a harsh way of describing it. I would call it clinging to a shred of hope.

The way the soft cap works, teams would be insane not to put exit clauses into contracts. It's just whether or not Adelaide's admin were drinking the same bathwater as the footy media and supporters which concerns me. They might have been caught flat footed and not expecting us to slide.

I agree with that. I really, well as you say clinging to a shred of hope , Hope that there are sufficient clauses in the contract.

Despite the relative poor football played, both games have still been winnable and the margins (on face value) of 6 & 19 are close enough to say that with a few changes, better skill execution etc. those losses can be turned into wins. You were in this spot last year. But he (would) want to turn it around pretty quick, no recovery and he will rightly be under fire and questions most definitely should be getting asked.

 

[George Kramer]

I would love to be in the inner sanctum and see what Olsen, Silvers and Roo are thinking now.

Would it be, this is just a hiccup, no cause for alarm, Nicks will sort it or is it a bit of oh **** what have we done?

I think they would be very nervous. We haven’t looked on all preseason and for the first 2 games.

We rode the Tex wave last year and we can’t keep doing that, sore back and it’s inevitable he will start to decline.

Our midfield hasn’t been rebuilt, we’ve got all old timers in there with cameos from kids.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Would it be, this is just a hiccup, no cause for alarm, Nicks will sort it or is it a bit of oh * what have we done?

Going to go with option 2.

 

[George Kramer]

Going to go with option 2.

They did it because they couldn’t handle the pressure of a poor start and then having to explain re-signing him. They snuck it in before our second loss. Imagine trying to announce Nicks re-signing this week?

 

[MsTopG]

I don't blame him for playing Crouch/Dawson/Laird midfield. Rachele hasn't looked up to it as a midfielder this preseason and Pedlar looks a mile off. We need Rankine forward more than midfield. At least Nicks is trying him in spurts.

Berry struggled tonight. I think its possible he comes good but he has a lot of work to do on fundamentals which is a concern but potentially fixable. At the same time he doesn't compliment this midfield mix.

I would give Rankine 20-30% CBA and while I'd like to see Berry get a run first, its hard given the type of mid he is. Its time to throw Soligo in there for a bit.

I'd make Crouch no.1 for CBAs and rotate Dawson on a wing. He dominated there at Sydney and he can still be fed the ball. Maybe drop Dawsons CBAs by 20%.Laird can come off HF a bit more.

Its fairly obvious Soligo should be a full time mid. Dawson, Soligo, one of Crouch or Laird(definitely not both), Rankine, Pedlar should be our midfield mix. Then you blood Taylor, Curtin, Edwards this year with some games.

 

[Scorpus]

How much of the issue with the midfield is Nathan "Neil Craig" Van Berlo

A guy who coasted on effort for years and probably felt like he was owed his milestone matches after long service to the club

 

[Faaarrk]

I’m so glad Nicks’ contract has finally been resolved, now he can give all his focus on coaching without the ‘distraction’ it apparently causes. Oh wait…

 

[AFC979810]

How much of the issue with the midfield is Nathan "Neil Craig" Van Berlo

A guy who coasted on effort for years and probably felt like he was owed his milestone matches after long service to the club

What a reasonable take. You and old 1970 been watching a little too much Fox News.

 

[Scorpus]

What a reasonable take. You and old 1970 been watching a little too much Fox News.

He's in charge of the midfield, which is poorly structured, poorly drilled, lacks development and is just generally ineffective.

During his playing days he was very much part of the culture of rewarding tenure and seniority

Played the vast majority of his career under extreme conservative Neil Craig and has spent most of his years coaching under the conservative Nicks

 

[AFC979810]

He's in charge of the midfield, which is poorly structured, poorly drilled, lacks development and is just generally ineffective.

My beef with the Assistant Slander is that there is so much behind the scenes we don't know about its virtually impossible to be critical of assistants. How much power does VB wield - how much of a say does he have in who goes in the middle compared to Nicks? What about the fact we haven't drafted a top 20 midfielder since Danger in 07?

During his playing days he was very much part of the culture of rewarding tenure and seniority

Played the vast majority of his career under extreme conservative Neil Craig and has spent most of his years coaching under the conservative Nicks

C'mon. If playing career's had anything to do with coaching ability then Alistair Clarkson and Luke Beveridge wouldn't be premiership coaches.

 

[Rory Walkerfield]

Perhaps Nick’s grand plan for this year was to chip the ball slowly down the wing, and then bang it long onto TT’s head.

Someone should tell him the 1980’s is gone and that TT is injured.

 

[crows dude]

Players these days like mr nice guy as coach. I remember when Sando got sacked it was straight after a few leaders went to Chapman complaining about him. As they all love nicks this won’t happen.

Nicks would be a great senior assistant. The one the players feel comfortable with talking to. We need a better strategic mind as coach. I think Pyke and Nicks combo would have been good if Pyke didn’t step down after review. Pyke coach and the Nicks his right hand man and the players mate.

 

[GreyCrow]

My beef with the Assistant Slander is that there is so much behind the scenes we don't know about its virtually impossible to be critical of assistants. How much power does VB wield - how much of a say does he have in who goes in the middle compared to Nicks? What about the fact we haven't drafted a top 20 midfielder since Danger in 07?



C'mon. If playing career's had anything to do with coaching ability then Alistair Clarkson and Luke Beveridge wouldn't be premiership coaches.

Well Burgess has the final say on selection so why cant VB have final say on midfield rotations etc

 

[FR0GGY]

My beef with the Assistant Slander is that there is so much behind the scenes we don't know about its virtually impossible to be critical of assistants. How much power does VB wield - how much of a say does he have in who goes in the middle compared to Nicks? What about the fact we haven't drafted a top 20 midfielder since Danger in 07?



C'mon. If playing career's had anything to do with coaching ability then Alistair Clarkson and Luke Beveridge wouldn't be premiership coaches.

I think it’s fine to pin it on a line coach if something is wrong with that particular part of the game plan, when it’s all shitzen and the overall game plan isn’t working or not cohesive then the head coach comes under fire

 

[ABAB]

Perhaps Nick’s grand plan for this year was to chip the ball slowly down the wing, and then bang it long onto TT’s head.

Someone should tell him the 1980’s is gone and that TT is injured.

Chip the ball slowly down the wing? Bruh, they just skip that step and just bomb it down the wing, win possession back and then bomb it inside 50.

 

[Scorpus]

C'mon. If playing career's had anything to do with coaching ability then Alistair Clarkson and Luke Beveridge wouldn't be premiership coaches.

Why wouldn't the culture of they club the played at influence their opinions?

 

[AFC979810]

Well Burgess has the final say on selection so why cant VB have final say on midfield rotations etc

Its Nicks final selection.

He has to live by the sword and die by the sword. The fish rots from the head.

There are so many variables - its pretty much impossible to discuss performance of line coaches.