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

[hugecannon]

'' where do you see Brodie Smith going forward?'

'' Brodie is still a vital part of our group and brings a vast array of experience''

+

“His form isn’t where it needs to be right now, but he’s working his butt off at SANFL level, to get back to where he needs to be while providing leadership and experience to the young guys there”

 

[kirky]

There is no explanation for the start of the year. We looked shocking. We weren't the only side this season to start like this.

Carlton and Essendon butchered their games? So you still can't give the team praise for those wins? We won due to their stuff ups? Sheesh. If you want to play sliding doors moments, we were 12 straight kicks away from finishing equal third on the ladder with 15 wins. Those opportunities were there in every game, we didn't take them.

Ranking injuries is pretty weak evidence. Instead of injuries to Rankine, Worrall, Murray, thilthorpe, butts, Crouch, Tex it could have been Jones, Murphy, Laird, himmelberg, borlase etc.

I don't know why dowling wasn't played until round 13, and neither do we. Was he carrying a niggle? Fitness? Given personal targets to reach before getting afl games? We arent in selection meetings, for all we know there was a reason. Smith deserved some time, probably a few games too many. I was fine with Mchenry getting a couple games, sholl and Berry were also allowed the same and showed they had improved. Mchenry did not and was dropped. Murphy, can't stand him.

I agree Milera never reached his potential, still a mile better than Murphy, Jones, mchenry etc. We are a better team with Milera in, those about out.

No, what I’m saying is in both those games the result could have easily gone the wrong way and it required a bit of brilliance by Berry and Rachele to win it. And in the case of the Essendon game, Merrett ran out of the centre square and he gave them another chance to win it. How was our defensive strategy in that centre bounce?

Ranking injuries is pretty weak? Every team gets varying degree of injuries. Still to lose to Richmond at home who had bigger outs than us was unforgivable. Yeh, how silly of me.

Perhaps go thru the SANFL stats for Dowling - he wasn’t injured but I’d suggest that Nicks kept to his preferred core group of footballers until they couldn’t deliver and by Round 13 our season was over.

Milera plays a totally different position to Murphy and McHenry so hardly relevant using that comparison.

 

[FR0GGY]

Playing a terrible combo of Burgess and Berg wouldn't have helped either

How many goals did burgess kick in his absence?

 

[FR0GGY]

Also had we not showed up for 2024 with such a shit slow game plan and snagged one or two wins early on, there’s every chance the season turns out different with a team with more confidence.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Playing a terrible combo of Burgess and Berg wouldn't have helped either

Yes it would, because you'd get a fit Tex back instead of having him plow on and nurse injury all season

Nicks only looks to the upcoming Saturday

 

[kirky]

Yes it would, because you'd get a fit Tex back instead of having him plow on and nurse injury all season

Nicks only looks to the upcoming Saturday

He would be a terrible strategist.

Not a very forward thinking individual.

 

[Brett Cummings]

LOL .....you're talking the teams' spine ....you're talking some of our most important players, Rankine (missed 7 games) Thilthorpe, Murray, Worrell ....and with the injuries those latter 3 had, they simply don't come back in "top form"

Everyone underrates the importance of the Milera role ....arguably one of the most important roles, particularly when you lose so many CBA's and your starting attacks from the HB line

And lastly ...we lost key players in areas of greatest weakness, and experience .....and without experienced depth to cover

We lost to richmond at home who had just as many injuries. Nicks is garbage. Get over it.

 

[kirky]

We lost to richmond at home who had just as many injuries. Nicks is garbage. Get over it.

This is the loss that is absolutely inexcusable - Richmond were garbage all year and to lose on your home ground can’t be defended at all.

 

[CrowBloke]

Do you know what would fracture a playing group? Nicks coming out and saying what it seems a lot of you want him to say... "Smith is in decline, so we will throw him in the SANFL for the foreseeable future."

Clearly, Smith is not "a big part of our future" because:
--- he's in very poor form and has admitted that, himself.
--- he turns 33 in January next year. That + poor form (for which he's been dropped) doesn't augur well for his future. Unless he turns back the clock, gets super-fit (and I mean Cameron-McEvoy-50m-gold-medal-fit) it's unlikely he'll be a part of our 2025 future or beyond.

What "can" be said to the media and what actually happens are chalk and cheese.
We know jack crap of what actually happens at the club regarding contracts, salary, planning, recruiting and everything.

I agree wholeheartedly with that; jenny61_99 has made that same point often.
Plenty happens that we don't know about, nor ever will. Fair point,

It's not public knowledge and we speculate things into truth.

BUT
in the case referred to, Nicks did say Smith "is a big part of our future".
He said that. It's fact. It's truth. It's a ridiculous thing to say, whether Nicks was being all nice and politically correct, or not. He could have said "We're doing all we can to get Smithers back to his best", or similar.
It's not something that has been speculated into truth (but to be fair, plenty is, though).

 

[CrowBloke]

Nearly every coach has them and Nicks has made more than his share. But citing something so trivial as not subbing on a 4th gamer 15 minutes earlier in a close match against a top 4 side as if it would have been the difference? Come on... I'll also add that none of his errors have been the difference between us winning a flag or not. None of them have even cost us a top 4 spot, or even a home final...

That last sentence is demonstrably incorrect.
Putting 100 games into Murphy (whose continued selection defies all logic and reason) and 70 into McHenry (who's not AFL standard) has caused more problems than successes.
Ditto, weird selection policies and senior-player-favoritism which reward mediocrity AND lack of a game plan or game-day decisions which turn a game our way.
2024 is NOT an outlier, not a 'blip' due to injuries and poor list.

After 5 long, long, lousy years, Nicks has taken us to twice as many losses as wins. Not within a chance of Top 4, or a Flag. THAT is his record.

You mention other Coaches who also deal with injuries and list problems, but none of them have such a poor record. If that's not enough for you and beartoo and WaynesWorld19 I've got 2 words for you.
Sam.
Mitchell.
Look what he's achieved in two years, compared to what Nicks has done in FIVE.

The much-reviled Neil Craig took us from 12th in 2004 to Minor Premiers in 2005 and only one position lower in 2006.
Don Pyke, who's often attacked in here as well, Coached us to the 2017 GF.
I'd take either of them back over Nicks in a millisecond.

 

[CrowBloke]

Rankine, our best player, played 15 games and we won 5 of them

He's apparently crucial to our success. Star player, the best we've got. And yet when he actually did play, look at how well we did

Yes, and Nicks blames the players for our losses, the players and injuries.

Nicks was responsible for our not-many wins, but not responsible for our twice-as-many losses?? (<== it's rubbish, I know).

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Justify Murphy then

Delusion!

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

You mean those two teams who turned it around, changed up their game plan and made finals?

Gee wish we could have done that

Lol, Wayne didn't quite think through his own argument....

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

There is no explanation warranted

Teams have rough patches sometimes

Nicks has only had rough patches for five full seasons which is the issue and why those examples have absolutely no bearing here.

Our rough patch for the 1st month that cooked our season was self-inflicted by Nicks ****ing up our game plan.

Anyone suggesting otherwise is attempting to rewrite history or delusional.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

No but he did pick and play an injured Tex.

On more than 1 occasion... because he loves repeating the same mistakes over & over.

.. Because he is not a smart coach.

 

[adelaidecrows]

What is it you think you're breaking? Everyone in here knew he wasn't getting turfed before next season.

No i didnt think he would I was hoping. There is a difference. But I said numerous times recently he would at least be our coach until midyear next year.

I was merely doing this week count down for those of us who were still holding out. Basically if anything was going to happen, it would have happened already.

 

[adelaidecrows]

Nicks wasn't the reason we had a virtually injury free 2023, and 2024 injuries to key players
Nicks didn't break worralls arm
Nicks didn't do Thilthorpes and mileras knees
Nicks didn't injure texs back
Nicks didn't ping rankines hamstring
Nicks didn't have any part in us playing 9 eventual finalists in the final 12 games of the season.
Nicks didn't refuse to call a free against Draper for planking on the ball
Nicks has pulled Berry and Sholl off the scrap heap into the best form of their careers
Nicks dropped underperforming experienced players like Smith, Jones and pushed Laird out of the middle
Nicks played 39 players this season
Nicks isnt resonsible for the lack of depth due to failed draft picks taken before his time at the club
Nicks wasn't the one to make the extension call on his own contract...

There are plenty of things to blame Nicks for, plenty he has done wrong.Nearly every coach has them and Nicks has made more than his share. But citing something so trivial as not subbing on a 4th gamer 15 minutes earlier in a close match against a top 4 side as if it would have been the difference? Come on... I'll also add that none of his errors have been the difference between us winning a flag or not. None of them have even cost us a top 4 spot, or even a home final...

This Witch Hunt is getting a bit ridiculous. A lot of the things I see posted here as Nicks errors are speculative, meaning no one knows how it would have panned out if Nicks went the other way. The hate band wagon is looking more like the morning peak hour train in Mumbai.

I still believe that the Tippett sanctions, camp, McAsey, poor drafting from 2013 to 2018, Gibbs trade are all 10 times more to blame than Nicks for our current situation.

firstly 3 of the finals teams were below us on the ladder last season. Secondly no one is blaming Nicks for any of this.

Clearly you have totally misread every post on here.

As for 2023, Nicks refused to send players who were poorly performing back to the Sanfl. At one stage we selected the same 25 players for 16 weeks. Nicks merely rotated the same fringe players through Sub. We were only winning at 50% throughout that time. Instead of trying anything new he kept the same players. We were losing the centre clearances every week during this time. We had Crouch stuck in the Sanfl. Wasnt until after the bombers loss it kicked into his head he had to change it up. He brought in new players. This is what we are talking about. Stop defending the indefensible. We arent stupid. If we finished 15th this year and last year but he was pumping games into kids and talent identifying we can accept this.

And no, our onfield situation is all Nicks. Dont make stuff up.

 

[crow2crow]

The thing I keep coming back to is that in the last five years absolutely everything has changed except one thing. Nicks.

New assistants
New administration
New players
New fitness
New fixtures
New injuries (or wellness)

But the results are more or less the same. Remember 2020 was a short season.

Nicks is the ONLY constant

 

[Redline]

'' where do you see Brodie Smith going forward?'

'' Brodie is still a vital part of our group and brings a vast array of experience''

That good experience is a fair while ago now for all our senior players. It's been seven years since played in a final, whatever they are offering its not up to standard.

That applies to all of Smith, Laird, O'Brien, Crouch and Tex. They wouldn't know what a successful club looks like.

 

[jackster83]

That good experience is a fair while ago now for all our senior players. It's been seven years since played in a final, whatever they are offering its not up to standard.

That applies to all of Smith, Laird, O'Brien, Crouch and Tex. They wouldn't know what a successful club looks like.

They are pretty good at finger pointing and berating younger players though.

Even Tex giving away at least one 50m penalty for abusing the umpire every game. If Curtin or Taylor did that, they'd be subbed out and sent straight back to the SANFL. It's petulant and pathetic.

 

[relapse]

There is no explanation for the start of the year. We looked shocking. We weren't the only side this season to start like this.

Carlton and Essendon butchered their games? So you still can't give the team praise for those wins? We won due to their stuff ups? Sheesh. If you want to play sliding doors moments, we were 12 straight kicks away from finishing equal third on the ladder with 15 wins. Those opportunities were there in every game, we didn't take them.

Using similar logic we were 14 missed kicks from finishing equal 17th.

We aren't the only team that had a few losses by smallish margins.

St Kilda lost 6 games by 10 points or less.

Essendon and Gold Coast also both lost around 3-4 games by a similar margin.

It's pretty normal for many games to end in a close result. The real challenge is.to become good enough as a side to be able to win thse close games.

This is why some of us are so frustrated because Nicks has done very little this year to build for 2025 to help bridge that gap.

 

[crows dude]

How many goals did burgess kick in his absence?

He kicked 7.6 from 7 games with one game with 3.

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

No, what I’m saying is in both those games the result could have easily gone the wrong way and it required a bit of brilliance by Berry and Rachele to win it. And in the case of the Essendon game, Merrett ran out of the centre square and he gave them another chance to win it. How was our defensive strategy in that centre bounce?

Ranking injuries is pretty weak? Every team gets varying degree of injuries. Still to lose to Richmond at home who had bigger outs than us was unforgivable. Yeh, how silly of me.

Perhaps go thru the SANFL stats for Dowling - he wasn’t injured but I’d suggest that Nicks kept to his preferred core group of footballers until they couldn’t deliver and by Round 13 our season was over.

Milera plays a totally different position to Murphy and McHenry so hardly relevant using that comparison.

You can't isolate plays in the dying stages of a game as the reason for a win or loss. There are similar instances in every quarter. In regards to Merrett, even the most defensive teams lose centre clearances.

You are welcome to "Suggest" that about dowling, but it doesn't make it fact. You may be right or you may be a long way off. Personally I would have played him earlier too.

We both know a couple of positional movements and use of the bench accommodates a Milera in, Murphy out.

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

How many goals did burgess kick in his absence?

Without Tex in the side Burgess kicked 0 goals in 2 games.

We won 1 game by 2 points and lost 5 without Tex.

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

Yes it would, because you'd get a fit Tex back instead of having him plow on and nurse injury all season

Nicks only looks to the upcoming Saturday

Without knowing what injuries he was carrying how would we know? A few games he didn't look right, but he had had periods though his whole career where he looked like this. Most players are playing though some kind of discomfort in the back end of the season.

I haven't read any medical reports or spoken to Nicks so we will never know.

What I do know is blaming Nicks, who isn't a sports doctor of any form, and claiming he only looks to the upcoming Saturday fits the agenda of wanting Nicks gone.