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

[1990crow]

Really don't understand how a bottom 4 finish in your 5th year doesn't lead to being sacked.

Never been more pessimistic about our future.
How do we actually improve?
Midfield is uncompetitive and hasn't developed at all.

 

[MRB37]

So even if we ignore Nicks first 3 years, his last 2 he's gone 19-1-26 (assuming we lose this week) which is about a 40% win percentage.

Heck, even Alan Richardson managed to pull off 2 .500+ seasons in a row in his 3rd and 4th years.

 

[Scorpus]

I think most supporters would have been outraged if Nicks would have drafted and played Liam Shiels and Greenwood in the midfield this year.

He basically did that with Crouch, Laird and Sloane

 

[MrBarry]

To his credit he said to the media today we don't want to be robots and have characters in the game.

 

[kirky]

Don't be ignorant Kane .....you're smarter than this garbage

Expecting wins at the start of a rebuild, during CoVid ......no runners allowed on the ground for a young group

Just pure rubbish to be trotting this out ......most had the Club in Finals this year, so the Coach wasn't that bad obviously

You couldn't tell me any of the top coaches in-game strategic moves .....nor Nicks moves
The days of the earth shattering Jarman move are long gone .....there are subtle changes, for example how Dawson is being used .....or how Stewart is being played to overcome tagging

Whilst I think Rankines move into the midfield was too long in coming ......and remember many of the genius's on this board, didn't want Rankine playing midfield .....the use of him as been great

The use of Hinge .....the experimentation of Michalanney in the midfield

I built organisations for a living .....I love how various entities go about it .....if you're not excited about the future of this group, that's been pulled together by Club personnel you hate .....then it's good you're not going to the footy any more

Well we were the 6th youngest group - we still had a fair number of senior players in 2020.

We did become the youngest in 2021 but 16th in games experience and in 2022 we were youngest in both age and games played.

Now in 2023 we were 3rd youngest and 2nd lowest in games paid and in 2024 we are 5th youngest and 4th lowest in games played.

Both Hawks and Fremantle are both younger and games played whilst GWS is nearly the same as us (only one month difference) in age stakes.

 

[kirky]

“little evidence we will make finals in 2025” is an opinion, not a fact. Your opinions may well be right but I’d argue there is some evidence we can do much better next year with less injuries. Our score percentages alone (> 100%) and the fact we’ve been matching the top teams in recent weeks with the young inconsistent squad, suggests we’re not that far off.

Incidentally, 7 out of our last 9 games are played against the current top 7 teams! And if we take away the Sydney game, we’ve been matching it well with 5 of the other teams in the top 6:

2. Port - we’ve matched them pretty well this year.
3. GWS - we recently beat them
4. Cats - recent loss by 1 goal (away)
5. Lions - recent loss by 2 goals (away)
6. Dogs - we won by 40 points

Bearing in mind these are Finals-like games with all teams needing wins to guarantee Finals, nearing the end of the season. Compare this form against our first 5 weeks of footy and it’s like chalk and cheese! End result may be the same, but I’m more interested in our momentum shift. This is what betting people look for, don’t they?

As Gary Lyon said On the Couch, Adelaide have done this in both 2022 and 2023, so this year is no different.

When expectation is removed, they perform. Same goes when we play a top 8 side, we aren’t expected to win so we perform or as has been the case, narrow loss.

Just for reference in 2023, we didn’t beat any of the sides that finished between 7-12. Not one win against that group. Now why would that be?

 

[rabidcrow]

You got to be impressed with the way Sam Mitchell goes about it.

I think our game against the Hawks showed how far Nicks is out of his depth with game plan and tactics.

Just imagine if we had a coach that would get rid of useless stat padders because he understands you need to get games into your future midfielders.
And recruiting a young ruckman and playing him to help build that midfield.

We also had 10 different players playing the last couple of weeks compared to when we played Hawks and Richmond. Because we have been down the bottom all year it gets overlooked how many games key players have missed - in a squad that doesn’t have a lot of depth


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[El Doederino]

To his credit he said to the media today we don't want to be robots and have characters in the game.

Softening us up for a Ned McHenry recall

 

[rabidcrow]

Well we were the 6th youngest group - we still had a fair number of senior players in 2020.

We did become the youngest in 2021 but 16th in games experience and in 2022 we were youngest in both age and games played.

Now in 2023 we were 3rd youngest and 2nd lowest in games paid and in 2024 we are 5th youngest and 4th lowest in games played.

Both Hawks and Fremantle are both younger and games played whilst GWS is nearly the same as us (only one month difference) in age stakes.

2019 the only young guys that got games were

Murphy 21
Jones 8
McHenry 0
Poholke 2
Stengle 2
Fogarty 4

In 2020 (short season 18 rounds)
Murphy 12
Jones 15
McAsey 10
McHenry 8
Schoenberg 8
MacPHerson 9
Stengle 12
Fogarty 10
Hamill 8
Poholke 5
Sholl 8
Crocker 7
Butts 2
McAdam 13
Worrell 0
Gollant 0

We gave almost everyone on the list a go - so regardless of age profile of the squad we certainly started expose all the youth on our list


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[WaynesWorld19]

Well we were the 6th youngest group - we still had a fair number of senior players in 2020.

We did become the youngest in 2021 but 16th in games experience and in 2022 we were youngest in both age and games played.

Now in 2023 we were 3rd youngest and 2nd lowest in games paid and in 2024 we are 5th youngest and 4th lowest in games played.

Both Hawks and Fremantle are both younger and games played whilst GWS is nearly the same as us (only one month difference) in age stakes.

I assume that age profile is skewed by the inclusion of Tex, Smith, Laird, and Sloane, who is still listed

Would be an interesting exercise to take the top 3 games played out for each Club and then look at the age profile

 

[Brett Cummings]

Theres no defending this guy. The club made a mistake re signing him and will look like absolute clowns if they sack him next year.

and if we dont make finals he's gone.

 

[Scorpus]

If Nicks drops Rachele I'm done

 

[Crowstar]

**** Nicks

 

[bmac84]

If Nicks drops Rachele I'm done

 

[Mr_Moogle]

This ****ing guy.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Surely no one, except Wayne, needs more proof we are going nowhere with Nicks as coach.

He is damaging our club & must go now!

 

[Scorpus]

I'm not exaggerating when I say that if he drops Rachele for celebrating it's the worst decision he has EVER made

 

[GROTTO]

If Nicks drops Rachele I'm done

This has the potential for Rachele to walk out on the Club.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

This would have been a move by the Leadership group, not the Coach in isolation

Set standards …. Rachele fits into the team, not Rachele doing his own ****

I endorse the move …. Dawson isn’t a clown & his background of SYD would not tolerate a player going outside team first

 

[FullyBigKPro]

I'm not exaggerating when I say that if he drops Rachele for celebrating it's the worst decision he has EVER made

Nicks finally found a way to get McHenry back into the side....

Please get this rotten stench of a 'coach' out of the AFC - NOW.

 

[The Karma Bus]

This would have been a move by the Leadership group, not the Coach in isolation

Set standards …. Rachele fits into the team, not Rachele doing his own ****

I endorse the move …. Dawson isn’t a clown & his background of SYD would not tolerate a player going outside team first

A mutual circuit break decision?
This stuff might have burnt Rash out, he didn't expect this shitstorm.

And in the last round he will be watched close and smashed again for the smallest thing.

 

[WeeBlake]

Absolute joke, just wrong at every turn. Amazing he has the respect and confidence of anyone.

 

[FullyBigKPro]

Absolutely joke, just wrong at every turn. Amazing he has the respect and confidence of anyone.

He is pretty much getting into Mark Neeld/Scott Watters territory of coaching dudness.

It's like since 2018 onwards we have been hoodwinked into accepting mediocrity and not not hurt anyone's feelings.

We've turned a professional sporting club into a Kindergarten

 

[1970crow]

Lucky he didn't have a beer at a footy game or run around a pool table in boxers.

 

[1970crow]

He is pretty much getting into Mark Neeld/Scott Watters territory of coaching dudness.

It's like since 2018 onwards we have been hoodwinked into accepting mediocrity and not not hurt anyone's feelings.

We've turned a professional sporting club into a Kindergarten

"Turned"? It's always been us, it's our dna.