Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach (Part 3) - The Biggest Loser

Is Matthew Nicks the right coach for Adelaide?

  • Firmly yes (I love what I'm seeing)

  • Leaning yes

  • Can't decide either way

  • Leaning no (but don't sack him yet)

  • Firmly no (he should be sacked)


Results are only viewable after voting.

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You mean you’re discounting close losses which could go either way as an excuse? Seriously? Facts are we went 0-13, I repeat 0-13. No one predicted that, stop throwing up excuses. Our side was better than that.
What excuse? I was expecting to finish more close to the bottom half then the top half of the bottom 8 and then likely bottom 2 just like they were expecting when the pandemic occurred with the training restriction. Looking at the experience players Nicks played in the first half of 2020, a lot of them were cooked and probably why you expected we were better but Talia, Brown and Gibbs all retired, Lynch was cooked and Seedsman eventually retired.
 
It happens every time we hit the front in the last vs good opponents. We change game plans to protect the lead, lose any ability to score, and lose the match because the other team attacks unchecked until they get in front again. There are 15 or so examples of this. The only times we win close games are where we hit the front right at the end and there isnt enough time for the opposition to score again (Carlton, Essendon)
Essendon had time. 50 seconds and they had 2 shots at goal.

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It happens every time we hit the front in the last vs good opponents. We change game plans to protect the lead, lose any ability to score, and lose the match because the other team attacks unchecked until they get in front again. There are 15 or so examples of this. The only times we win close games are where we hit the front right at the end and there isnt enough time for the opposition to score again (Carlton, Essendon)
"We change game plans to protect the lead"

One of the many reasons he's so shit. When you have momentum why tf would you wanna start defending even more.
 
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Hawthorn have made Luke Breust sub for most of the season.

I'd love for us to do that with Smith.
...for the SANFL!
 
Essendon had time. 50 seconds and they had 2 shots at goal.

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Yep, I think it was similar vs Carlton.

We gave them opportunities to win in the last 90 secs.

Our planning/structures for the last couple of minutes in close games is horrendous.

It's not luck our record in these close games is so poor, its due to our inept coaches.
 
EVERY CLUB PLAYED UNDER COVID RULES
Yes but clearly the argument is a new coach in a total rebuild NEEDS much more time initially - relative to an existing playing group and established coach - installing a new game plan, getting buy in from players, learning about players weakness and strength.

Not hard to rationalise CV adversely impacting a team like us much more than others on a relative basis.

Linear improvement including a surprisingly good year last year.

Before it turned to shit this year.
 
All pundits had us finishing bottom 2, got a source for that?

Did any of these pundits have us losing 0-13?

And have you actually looked at our side? Forget the turnover of players, look at who we actually had in the team.
Did you click on the article?

A few days prior to the start of the 2020 season revamp, foxfooty.com.au asked 10 experts to predict what the AFL ladder would look like come Round 17.

All 10 pundits had the Adelaide Crows in their bottom-two teams.
 
You mean you’re discounting close losses which could go either way as an excuse? Seriously? Facts are we went 0-13, I repeat 0-13. No one predicted that, stop throwing up excuses. Our side was better than that.
Cmon George you are better than that. Abab states a fact as per article. You dispute it and ask for a source. He then references the article and then you without acknowledging he had it right you go off on a tangent to try and deflect away. Just own up to errors old mate.
 

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That doesn’t justify a 0-13 start and wooden spoon

Nothing justifies a 0-13 start although the Pandemic unquestionably impacted us more than most other sides given new coach, new game plan, large list turnover

If you read the article - the journalist isn’t at all surprised how bad we were. But the highlight!

“Adelaide now have 7 players taken in the first round of the draft under 23 that need to take this club forward for the next 10 years”

The list of elite talent Nicks had at his disposal to rebuild our club

Gallucci
McHenry
Jones
McAsey
Doedee (did 1 or 2 knees through this period?)
Milera - injured for all of 2020,2021
Fogarty - has developed nicely, at typical rate for a KPF

That’s what Nicks had to work with for young talent.
Now since then - last few years - we have drafted really well on the whole and the list is in a much better position

But as the article and ABAB highlighted we lost 11 senior players over 2 seasons in 2019,2020 having already lost our 3 best young players in McGovern, Cameron and Lever over the previous 2 seasons

So he was starting with one of the very worst foundations of all time for this rebuild. That’s just indisputable. He definitely isn’t a super coach and has made plenty of errors but I think the reason the club has shown faith in him was they know the absolute disgrace the list was in as he turned it over



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Nothing justifies a 0-13 start although the Pandemic unquestionably impacted us more than most other sides given new coach, new game plan, large list turnover

If you read the article - the journalist isn’t at all surprised how bad we were. But the highlight!

“Adelaide now have 7 players taken in the first round of the draft under 23 that need to take this club forward for the next 10 years”

The list of elite talent Nicks had at his disposal to rebuild our club

Gallucci
McHenry
Jones
McAsey
Doedee (did 1 or 2 knees through this period?)
Milera - injured for all of 2020,2021
Fogarty - has developed nicely, at typical rate for a KPF

That’s what Nicks had to work with for young talent.
Now since then - last few years - we have drafted really well on the whole and the list is in a much better position

But as the article and ABAB highlighted we lost 11 senior players over 2 seasons in 2019,2020 having already lost our 3 best young players in McGovern, Cameron and Lever over the previous 2 seasons

So he was starting with one of the very worst foundations of all time for this rebuild. That’s just indisputable. He definitely isn’t a super coach and has made plenty of errors but I think the reason the club has shown faith in him was they know the absolute disgrace the list was in as he turned it over



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We turned over more players at the end of 2020 but there’s no excusing 2020, have a look a the side we had and there was no way it warranted 0-13 and the wooden spoon. Facts are we had too many senior players not play well, why? Were they all out of form at the same time or did coaching have something to do with it?

Roo was on record during 2020 they didn’t expect to be that, it’s because we shouldn’t have been.

Nicks gets off way to easily for 2020 and one of the reasons we cut much deeper at the end of 2020 was because of where we finished, it allowed us to go hard at the rebuild.
 
Not sure about that, Betts, Jenkins, Greenwood, Keath and Jacobs who were in our best 18 were traded end of 2019, Otten retired and Douglas got delisted (ended up retiring) then end of 2020, Gibbs retired, Hartigan got traded and CEY and Atkins got recruited to other clubs as FA. That's 7 players in the best 18 and another 4 as borderline best 22, that's a full rebuild and why we went from one of the most experience team contending for the premiership to one of the youngster within 2 years of making the Grand Final.
Add to that most the replacements to these players were younger, more inexperienced or didnt even have an AFL body or fitness base.

One of our biggest issues is depth. We lose TT and we replace with a barely AFL standard Himmelberg. We lose Rankine and have McHenry or Murphy to call upon. We lose Murray and in comes Borlase. The next tier on our list wouldn't be the depth at other clubs. They would likely already be gone.

Have 7 or 8 players from the best 22 out, we can't cover it with any level of quality. Last year we really had a lucky run with injuries.
 
We turned over more players at the end of 2020 but there’s no excusing 2020, have a look a the side we had and there was no way it warranted 0-13 and the wooden spoon. Facts are we had too many senior players not play well, why? Were they all out of form at the same time or did coaching have something to do with it?

Roo was on record during 2020 they didn’t expect to be that, it’s because we shouldn’t have been.

Nicks gets off way to easily for 2020 and one of the reasons we cut much deeper at the end of 2020 was because of where we finished, it allowed us to go hard at the rebuild.

Clearly some of the players didn’t like him (or what he was asking them to do) and that stood out in footage with Atkins and B Crouch from memory - and both left the club soon after

So no doubt that made a bad situation worse.
One think I have said before about Nicks though with you - the first time he had a decent team (still far too inexperienced but had a decent amount of talent) was last year and he should have played finals.


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We turned over more players at the end of 2020 but there’s no excusing 2020, have a look a the side we had and there was no way it warranted 0-13 and the wooden spoon. Facts are we had too many senior players not play well, why? Were they all out of form at the same time or did coaching have something to do with it?

Roo was on record during 2020 they didn’t expect to be that, it’s because we shouldn’t have been.

Nicks gets off way to easily for 2020 and one of the reasons we cut much deeper at the end of 2020 was because of where we finished, it allowed us to go hard at the rebuild.

I actually think there is even a better reason.

The season was abandoned after the first round due to Covid-19 and we never knew when it was coming back. Nicks being the good bloke coach probably didn’t instil levels of fitness required during the break and so when the players came back, we returned in probably the worst physical conditioning of all the footy sides. Everyone wants to make excuses because first time coach, game plan but I believe this was a major reason.

It is no coincidence that we improved in the back end of the season as our fitness levels probably improved.

Now lets now consider that we believe Burgess has improved our overall fitness levels. Since Burgess left Melbourne it is a shadow of its 2018-2021 form, how we would be placed now with similar reduction with lower fitness levels?
 
I actually think there is even a better reason.

The season was abandoned after the first round due to Covid-19 and we never knew when it was coming back. Nicks being the good bloke coach probably didn’t instil levels of fitness required during the break and so when the players came back, we returned in probably the worst physical conditioning of all the footy sides. Everyone wants to make excuses because first time coach, game plan but I believe this was a major reason.

It is no coincidence that we improved in the back end of the season as our fitness levels probably improved.

Now lets now consider that we believe Burgess has improved our overall fitness levels. Since Burgess left Melbourne it is a shadow of its 2018-2021 form, how we would be placed now with similar reduction with lower fitness levels?
Was that the year the Tex v Charlie photo came out?
 
I actually think there is even a better reason.

The season was abandoned after the first round due to Covid-19 and we never knew when it was coming back. Nicks being the good bloke coach probably didn’t instil levels of fitness required during the break and so when the players came back, we returned in probably the worst physical conditioning of all the footy sides. Everyone wants to make excuses because first time coach, game plan but I believe this was a major reason.

It is no coincidence that we improved in the back end of the season as our fitness levels probably improved.

Now lets now consider that we believe Burgess has improved our overall fitness levels. Since Burgess left Melbourne it is a shadow of its 2018-2021 form, how we would be placed now with similar reduction with lower fitness levels?
Watching that show that was on Amazon it also seemed like a lot of our players didn't understand what Nicks was asking for until Sloane told them to start taking notes during team meetings and studying more in their own time.

That infamous footage from the game against North where they were moving Gatorade bottles on the floor because the players didn't know where they were supposed to be as an example.
 

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Opinion Matthew Nicks: Adelaide's Coach (Part 3) - The Biggest Loser

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