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

[Syd Crow]

Sorry meant decade lmao.

Easy mistake to make - it seems like 50 years sometimes!

 

[Brett Cummings]

Mitchell cut hard and backed in his kids

Man this is so sad. He's the complete opposite of nicks.

 

[MRB37]

At half time in the Gold Coast game they crossed to their rooms.
They had a few large positive affirmation signs on the walls.
One said "play to YOUR strengths"
Do we encourage that?

You missed the disclaimer down the bottom in smaller writing that said

"Unless your strength is being aggressive, playing fast and taking risks"

 

[cleanhands]

At half time in the Gold Coast game they crossed to their rooms.
They had a few large positive affirmation signs on the walls.
One said "play to YOUR strengths"
Do we encourage that?

From the outside it doesn’t appear to be our message

 

[119others]

Likely right

But he would have set us up better

Im not sure what you mean by foundation talent unless you mean missing draft picks who could have been.

But just to look at your list. McHenry you say is a bust but he played 49 games from 2020-2022 8 last year and 10 this year

Played a lot of games for a bust. But that goes to my point in another thread. We dont make assessments quick enough .

Doedee injured in 2020 but played 41 games over 21-22 - ironically we did the right thing this time by moving him on at the exact right time

Milera - what could have been . Still 34 games between injuries meant we didnt ignore him

Again it highlights our overall decision making . I'm not a fan of Kelly but this is woeful even from him. There were promises made last year - like this year - '' we will go hard in the trade period'' and we get Burgess. Nice depth but not wow And we knew Doods and McAdam were gone long before so we had prep time

'' just wait until next year! ''

Agree with lots of this and I don’t think many would argue that Hamish didn’t have a VERY crappy 4 years finishing in 2019’s major **** up.

A combination of poor drafting - esp the 3 years of 2016 (Gooch), and then Chayce and Mc H in 2018 before the final disaster in 2019. Those poor years plus injuries to decent quality players drafted (Milera, Dude), Fogs slow burn in coming good and the lack of mature players that should have been drafted in first 2 rounds in 2012 and 2013 (25-26 years old in 2020) that we obviously lacked. So effectively 5 out of the 8 years leading to and inc 2019 we got bugger all from draft and trades but lost a handful of very good players inc 3 x AA (Danger, CC, Lever) for starters plus other quality like Mc Govern. It’s actually not that surprising things ultimately blew up in this context requiring our first ever very deep rebuild.

That said, I believe there has been a MAJOR turnaround in the last 4 years of drafting and trading bringing in well over half the current team - mainly from the first 3 years alone 2020-2022. We haven’t yet seen the fruits of Curtin, Edwards and Ryan but all seem promising to me. Hopefully Edwards extends over the break….he is the first concern “go home” (well MLB anyway) I have felt for a few years for various reasons.

Reidy did go hard at a number of targets last year. Just not easy getting player movement across the whole competition in recent years (as per lack of FA’s moving). Day was his number one priority and went as hard as we could but Horks also lots of spare cash currently. Letting McAdam and Dude walk for a late first rounder FA compo and around pick 27 in a deep draft this year has actually worked out well considering those 2 guys have played a total of 3 games combined for one goal (Lions must be very wary having a 5 yr contract for!). Reidy was quite ruthless pulling / significantly reducing Dudes offer after his ACL last year. Right move though.

Next year there are no more excuses for Nicks assuming he is still coaching, we will get an easier draw and virtually the whole squad has experienced senior footy with many of the youngsters now 50 ish games or more. He had shown linear improvement UNTIL this year and we possibly did over-achieve last year. This is his last chance though,

Kelly doesn’t seem up to it and also think he could be replaced - not sure who though and ideally Balme, health permitting, sits over everyone and ensures things are done right. As he has with many flags with Tiges and Cats

 

[Coopers]

Mitchell cut hard and backed in his kids

Look at this guy making sense and making tough decisions for short term pain and long term gain.





Disgusting.

 

[adelaidecrows]

What? More pressure and we could have done worse than 15th?
Sheesh

Yeah lol. One of the biggest reasons in the feel good PR was that there were no distractions that prevented us from making finals. In other words, Nicks would get hurty feelings.

 

[MRB37]

 

[adelaidecrows]

Stats for the happy clappers who may and argue a tougher draw hurt us.

1. 3 of our first 4 games that we lost were against sides not in the 8 as it currently stands.

14th Suns
9th Dockers
15th Demons

2. we have only beaten 4 of the current top 8 sides in the competition from 12 attempts, there are 3 new sides in the 8 this year. We only beat one of those sides, Western Bulldogs. Geelong and Hawthorn finished below us last year.

3. We lost to 6 teams who finished below us on the ladder in 2023. While we actually beat 4 teams in last years top 8.

4.

Our win loss ratio against last years top 8
4-1-5

Our win loss ratio against sides out of last years top 8
4-0-7

All our excuses are pretty pathetic really. Clearly this has Nicks written all over it. Not good enough.

 

[Redline]

I dont think this year was disastrous enough to sack the coach, he's earnt another year.

We are talking about a professional sporting club and a coach earning $500k a year, in his 5th year and still yet to deliver a pass mark. He hasn't earnt another year at all.

 

[GreyCrow]

Look at this guy making sense and making tough decisions for short term pain and long term gain.

Sigh. '' see ya Tom ''35 possies each week '' Mitchell - welcome Will '15-20 but we hope 25-30 ' Day

Imagine Nicks walking up to Laird and having that man conversation

No neither can I

 

[Crowbotoratory]

Nicks is going to be the first coach ever to coach half a century without making finals and go on to be a premiership coach. You're one f'ing delusional campaigner silvers.

Please tell me you mean decade. Please!!!!


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[Doctor B]

 

[relapse]

This would theoretically be the week it happens if this sub 10 win clause thing was true.
Which I doubt

There was zero chance of that ever being true.

If they were going to assess his suitability based on 2024 results they would have waited until later in the season.

I think it was wishful thinking by people who didn't want to believe our Board would be dumb enough to re-sign him when they did

Once he re-signed he was locked in for 2025 irrespective of the results.

 

[FR0GGY]

That was the payback for KeaysGate - robbing Matty N of being a finals coach - and very unlikely to be repeated next year

I’m not sure that’s right, we were one of the more exciting teams last year, which makes it all the more frustrating that we turned into one of the worst teams to watch this year (and in prime time spots)
I don’t believe there was any payback, the afl would have done it anyway given how we played.
The AFL probably saw an opportunity to call it pay back and do what they were going to do anyway.

 

[George Kramer]

He’s 100% right

 

[Geoffa32]

He’s 100% right

And we will waste 2025 as well.....

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

If everything goes right and all these guys are fit and in form at the start of the season:
Thilthorpe & Fog
Dawson
Rankine
Walker
Murray & Butts
Rachele
Soligo
Hinge, Keays & Worrell

We'll probably go okay. Win enough games to at least stay in the finals hunt til deep in the season. Nicks survives again.

It would only take 1-2 injuries from this group for things to go 2024-shaped though, as we've seen. We don't have the underlying quality or system or depth to succeed in the face of any hardships.

Need a dream run and a helpful draw.

 

[George Kramer]

And we will waste 2025 as well.....

The chances of us making finals is very remote as we are miles off making it this year.

Other clubs won’t stand still, as we’ve found this year it’s just not a given you improve and if Tex stays is decline will be more evident.

 

[Stephen2]

Nicksy's new year's resolution to forget most of his learnings from previous year probably hurts us again, don't forget that surprise revelation each year.

 

[Crowbotoratory]

We’re a bottom four side. There’s no sugar coating, excuse making, that could justify Nicks extension or tenure. It’s not professional and mostly embarrassing. Hard to support this club.

 

[FR0GGY]

If everything goes right and all these guys are fit and in form at the start of the season:
Thilthorpe & Fog
Dawson
Rankine
Walker
Murray & Butts
Rachele
Soligo
Hinge, Keays & Worrell

We'll probably go okay. Win enough games to at least stay in the finals hunt til deep in the season. Nicks survives again.

It would only take 1-2 injuries from this group for things to go 2024-shaped though, as we've seen. We don't have the underlying quality or system or depth to succeed in the face of any hardships.

Need a dream run and a helpful draw.

As long as we don’t have that shithouse game plan we saw at the start of the year either.

 

[119others]

I’m not sure that’s right, we were one of the more exciting teams last year, which makes it all the more frustrating that we turned into one of the worst teams to watch this year (and in prime time spots)
I don’t believe there was any payback, the afl would have done it anyway given how we played.
The AFL probably saw an opportunity to call it pay back and do what they were going to do anyway.

I actually spoke directly to Silvers and also emailed him ahout this issue. Upon the fixture release HE proactively emailed me saying ' I assume you are happy with the draw'

100% we pushed hard for a payback and fixturing was the core component of this

 

[Crow till I die]

Someone needs to post this to Nicks the moment the final siren sounds this weekend in reference to his coaching tenure

 

[MRB37]

As long as we don’t have that shithouse game plan we saw at the start of the year either.

As long as Nicks wants to play that contest heavy game where he wants the ball kept in tight in the contest and we move it slow, long, safe and compact everyone to a small area of the ground then we won't get anywhere. And he keeps going back to it no matter how much success we have playing the opposite.