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

[Pilchard_Adams]

Our draft pick this year won't have too much of an impact next season. Given how poorly we used Curtin this year, they're no certainty to even play regularly let alone make an impact next year.

Let's be realistic by the time whoever we pick at 4 is actually making an impact, Nicks won't be at the club.

ANB is an upgrade on Murphy, but our forward line is really the last thing we need to be worrying about.

At this point we have no idea who else is or isn't coming, but Pick 4 and ANB aren't going to be moving the needle in 2025 and I have massive concerns that Nicks hasn't invested anywhere near enough into 2025 for there to be an improvement.

I guess it depends who our pick 4 is. There have been a few high draft picks of late who hit the ground running and never look back.

Our high draft picks have all been tall, and taller players more often than not take a little bit more time.

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

Sure there is a lot of stuff we don't know, however results speak for themselves.

I am not sure about agenda's - but we now have plenty of evidence that Nicks isn't a good coach.

There have been 61 coaches who have coached 100+ games of AFL. Nicks has the 7th worst winning % of all these coaches.

If Nicks survives to the end of 2025 - he will be the only coach in VFL/AFL history to coach 127+ games with the same club and not play finals.



He is the head coach. Our results are his fault first and foremost.

Not all coaches walk into a club in as bad a position as ours was. Of the 61 coaches who have coached 100+ games, how many needed to turn a near full list over in 6 years of drafting. It's hard to use that stat as not all coaches walk into a list in as bad shape as ours.

2018 it was clear we needed a major rebuild. Since then only 9 players are still on our list. Not counting Sloane as he has retired. We have Tex, Laird, obrien, Smith, Crouch, Milera and Berg. Fog and Murphy were fresh draftees 2017.

35 faces on our list who weren't there in 2018, near 6 changes a year average. How many teams have turned over more than us in that period? How many coaches have walked into a team in such a bad position?

We should have a bunch of players 25 to 30 playing for us that WE drafted. Where are they? That isn't Nicks fault.

 

[GreyCrow]

Its not 2018 you judge Nicks on its from 2020 when he started

10 players from the round 1 game v Sydney 2020 are still on our list

Laird, Sloane, M Crouch, Walker, Smith, Murphy, Fogarty, Jones , OBrien and Milera - of those 8 played meaningful game time in 2024 with Sloane and Milera the outliers

Of those only Sloane is guaranteed a delisting this year

By round 18 v Richmond we added Sholl , Keays, Himmelberg, Schoenberg

Added: In 2024

 

[GreyCrow]

Top 30 Players drafted under Nicks

Berry (28) Curtin (8) Rachele (6) Cook (25) Pedlar (11) Thilthorpe (2) Edwards (21) Michalanney (17) Ryan ( 27)

And yes Nicks has little say on selections but he does on game time

Players aged 25-30 on our list today

Keays, Murphy , Crouch, Dawson, Hinge , Burgess, Laird, Milera. Himmelberg , OBrien and Strachan

Players 24 ie turning 25 in 2025

Jones, Fogarty, Sholl, Butts and Keane

 

[Crow till I die]

To think, roll up to watch the crows under nicks and see them lose 2 out of every 3 games he has coached us, and go backwards in year 5 of his tenure. Nothing looks like changing this off season in his regard (sacking) so unless something outside the mean happens, next year will very likely be another middling one regardless who we draft / trade. Its a depressing thought.

Oh, and nothing against you bigman as you do a power of work in the offseason, but i will take the reports of certain players beating pb's, training the house down etc with a grain of salt as they mean nothing when the real stuff starts round 1 next year. Its an all too familiar pattern

 

[Scorpus]

Its not 2018 you judge Nicks on its from 2020 when he started

10 players from the round 1 game v Sydney 2020 are still on our list

Laird, Sloane, M Crouch, Walker, Smith, Murphy, Fogarty, Jones , OBrien and Milera - of those 8 played meaningful game time with Sloane and Milera the outliers

Of those only Sloane is guaranteed a delisting this year

By round 18 v Richmond we added Sholl , Keays, Himmelberg, Schoenberg

Nicks basically took the list he had in 2020 and prioritised that group, with his hand occasionally being forced by list management.

There's a couple of rare instances of Nicks making calls not to play players who ultimately left the team (Atkins, Gibbs) but not heaps

 

[Mr_Moogle]

Oh, and nothing against you bigman as you do a power of work in the offseason, but i will take the reports of certain players beating pb's, training the house down etc with a grain of salt as they mean nothing when the real stuff starts round 1 next year. Its an all too familiar pattern

That's good policy. Be thankful to Bigman for the training reports but avoid getting hyped.

 

[Jcpdragonx]

Oh, and nothing against you bigman as you do a power of work in the offseason, but i will take the reports of certain players beating pb's, training the house down etc with a grain of salt as they mean nothing when the real stuff starts round 1 next year. Its an all too familiar pattern

Think it does mean something, just need the players to be enabled to excell during the season. It's difficult with players being held back, sub, dropped, shifted around, played out of position, etc.

 

[turbo182]

First Post for while.

Gobsmacked Nicks is not under heavy scrutiny/review and/or subsequently moved on.

This year, his actions and his decisions have been deplorable:

- The reluctance to drop middling/declining others is infuriating - Smith, Mchenry, Murphy, Jones (whilst not the worst), O'Brien (zero alternative planning) all should have been out of the side for extended periods/permanently in 2023/2024, yet they've added 30+ games to all their tallys. Murphy ongoing selection is baffling

- The treatment of the young players as a result of the above - Berry, Curtin, Dowling, Taylor in particular - has hindered their development and the speed of our rebuild. Sub use of teenagers - awful.

- Inability to stop momentum - How many waves of goals have we had kicked against us without any answer from the coaching box? hawthorn the worst example, but it was littered throughout our season. He is the worst momentum coach in the league.

- The move of laird to HB was so damn obvious and yet it took Nicks and Co 30 odd games to come up with something blind Freddy could see.

- The Blaming of players post losses and not accepting responsibility publicly is reprehensible. "the buck stops with me" would be Nice to hear for a change.

I've drawn the conclusion we can't possibly win a flag with Nicks. If we keep him much longer we are closer to another rebuild than a flag. Doubt anything happens to mid year if at all. Weak administration culpable.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

- Inability to stop momentum - How many waves of goals have we had kicked against us without any answer from the coaching box? hawthorn the worst example, but it was littered throughout our season. He is the worst momentum coach in the league.

Even after we introduced that bullshit of slowing the game down, chipping it around etc. Unbelievable.

 

[Gtowncrow]

So as a comparison of Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

48

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

with Matthew Nicks

Matthew Nicks

Age

49

Ht

187cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.6

3star

K

9.4

4star

HB

4.2

3star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.7

4star

G

0.7

4star

No current season stats available

D

6.6

2star

K

4.4

2star

HB

2.2

2star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.4

4star

G

0.4

3star

, the selection for the preliminary final (and possible grand final) will be interesting to watch.

Cat's pumped Port to earn a home prelim. Good for them.
But...

With Tom Hawkins

26

Tom Hawkins

Age

36

Ht

197cm

Wt

105kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.2

3star

K

7.9

3star

HB

4.4

3star

M

5.5

5star

T

1.9

4star

G

2.1

5star

D

12.7

3star

K

8.6

3star

HB

4.1

3star

M

5.1

5star

T

2.1

3star

G

1.6

5star

D

7.8

2star

K

5.6

3star

HB

2.2

2star

M

4.2

4star

T

1.0

3star

G

2.2

5star

and Cam Guthrie both playing VFL this weekend after poor seasons and reasonably long periods of absence with injury, I wonder if they get back in the team again.

Guthrie and Hawkins are our equivalent of Laird and Tex and you know that in crowland, they'd be straight back in the team post haste.

I'll be extremely interested to see what Geelong do.

What do you think?

 

[GreyCrow]

Guthrie will be back

Hawkins not so sure. Maybe the GF if they make it

 

[Doctor B]

So as a comparison of Chris Scott with Matthew Nicks, the selection for the preliminary final (and possible grand final) will be interesting to watch.

Cat's pumped Port to earn a home prelim. Good for them.
But...

With Tom Hawkins and Cam Guthrie both playing VFL this weekend after poor seasons and reasonably long periods of absence with injury, I wonder if they get back in the team again.

Guthrie and Hawkins are our equivalent of Laird and Tex and you know that in crowland, they'd be straight back in the team post haste.

I'll be extremely interested to see what Geelong do.

What do you think?

Scott talking about selection.
What would Nicks have done in that situation? He would have rushed the senior boys back in.

 

[Scorpus]

Nicks should be embarrassed and humiliated watching Hawthorn in the finals

 

[Gtowncrow]

Nicks should be embarrassed and humiliated watching Hawthorn in the finals

Congratulations to Hawthorn on recognising when club champions and premiership coaches belong to history and not the future.
Sam Mitchell looking a far superior choice compared to the incumbent. Courageous club decisions.

Nicks should not be embarrassed himself. Every employee from the CEO down should be watching what bravery and quality can produce. As for our board and in particular the board members who have football input, this is what "directing" a club looks like.

I hate Hawthorn but credit where it's due.

 

[Scorpus]

Congratulations to Hawthorn on recognising when club champions and premiership coaches belong to history and not the future.
Sam Mitchell looking a far superior choice compared to the incumbent. Courageous club decisions.

Nicks should not be embarrassed himself. Every employee from the CEO down should be watching what bravery and quality can produce. As for our board and in particular the board members who have football input, this is what "directing" a club looks like.

I hate Hawthorn but credit where it's due.

Nicks should be embarrassed about how him and his club carried on when a player celebrated a goal while the same thing occurs multiple times a game in finals

 

[King Elvis]

Nicks should be embarrassed and humiliated watching Hawthorn in the finals

Came here to say - how painful is it watching the Hawks, but, even more, listening to Mitchell talk.

He is intelligent, articulate, confident and consistent - he clearly knows exactly what/how he wants the Hawks to be, and is driving them towards it.

Nicks can't maintain consistency within the same press conference.

 

[Danger in Texas]

Jealous

 

[Jcpdragonx]

hawks reign of terror has begun
sydney have all their acadmy players peaking
geelong wont die
brisbane are still here and have plenty stars
gws are still a strong, young team
freo have some of the best young stars in the league
carlton will get burgess next year
pies will probably still be around
tiges will get 6 first round picks
north have young superstars
port have young superstars
saints are ahead of us
half of GC's best 22 are recent first rounders

we are so screwed. at least we will accumulate more top 5 picks

 

[Multiballz]

Jealous

Why does all this happy,happy ,feel- good talk comming out of Hawthorn(and Geelong to an extent) the last few weeks, seem like it's deliberately directed at the AFC?

Coincidence, or is the chip on my shoulder just getting too heavy?

 

[FR0GGY]

hawks reign of terror has begun
sydney have all their acadmy players peaking
geelong wont die
brisbane are still here and have plenty stars
gws are still a strong, young team
freo have some of the best young stars in the league
carlton will get burgess next year
pies will probably still be around
tiges will get 6 first round picks
north have young superstars
port have young superstars
saints are ahead of us
half of GC's best 22 are recent first rounders

we are so screwed. at least we will accumulate more top 5 picks

Carlton already got Sydney’s fitness bloke, maybe Sydney will get burgess instead

 

[1970crow]

Came here to say - how painful is it watching the Hawks, but, even more, listening to Mitchell talk.

He used intelligent, articulate, confident and consistent - he clearly knows exactly what/how he wants the Hawks to be, and is driving them towards it.

Nicks can't maintain consistency within the same press conference.

DNA

 

[King Elvis]

Why does all this happy,happy ,feel- good talk comming out of Hawthorn(and Geelong to an extent) the last few weeks, seem like it's deliberately directed at the AFC?

Coincidence, or is the chip on my shoulder just getting too heavy?

They're everything we could be - but aren't.

 

[Crow till I die]

If you stand still, you go backwards. Why is nicks still at our club? After taking us backwards this year from an already non finals finish why did he deserve to NOT be sacked?

 

[1970crow]

If you stand still, you go backwards. Why is nicks still at our club? After taking us backwards this year from an already non finals finish why did he deserve to NOT be sacked?

He didn’t, but the 2 year contract extension overules natural performance outcomes.