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

[Southerntakeover]

So hang on - Luko was the test because he was happy to stay at Gold Coast but chose Port over us. But Rankine, Dawson, Cumming weren't a test because they wanted to come to SA (even though Port wanted them and our sales pitch beat out ports).

Your posting is really intelligent.




Not of poaching best 22 players from other clubs. We have brought in 7 best 22 players from other clubs in our 30+ years.

3 of the 7 have come in the last 3 years under Nicks.

Darren Jarman 96, Carey 2002, Thompson 2004, Betts 2013, Dawson 2021, Rankine 2022, Cumming 2024.

I'm not sure this is all that meaningful.

We've been in a rebuild, with a focus on acquiring players, and have presumably had more available resource to spend on doing that. You'd expect more player attraction.

We've also been rumoured into a number of people that have re-signed.

 

[AFC979810]

I'm not sure this is all that meaningful.

We've been in a rebuild, with a focus on acquiring players, and have presumably had more available resource to spend on doing that. You'd expect more player attraction.

We've also been rumoured into a number of people that have re-signed.

The proof is in the pudding.

We have been trying to attract other players to our club for years. Even when competing we had the resources to throw out huge offers to players like Dusty and Jeremy Cameron.

I am not sure how securing Dawson, Rankine and Cumming in a 3 year period can be looked at as anything but positive.

 

[Southerntakeover]

The proof is in the pudding.

We have been trying to attract other players to our club for years. Even when competing we had the resources to throw out huge offers to players like Dusty and Jeremy Cameron.

I am not sure how securing Dawson, Rankine and Cumming in a 3 year period can be looked at as anything but positive.

We haven't lured a player like that now...

 

[AFC979810]

We haven't lured a player like that now...

I didn't say we had.

The point was that we HAVE had the resources in the past to attract players better than Dawson, Rankine & Cumming despite not rebuilding.

I think its pretty damn meaningful that in 3 years we have poached 3 best 22 players.

 

[Southerntakeover]

I didn't say we had.

The point was that we HAVE had the resources in the past to attract players better than Dawson, Rankine & Cumming despite not rebuilding.

I think its pretty damn meaningful that in 3 years we have poached 3 best 22 players.

I'm not really sure that's the same thing. That we wanted to be into big fish doesn't prove that we had the same interest in far smaller ones, or the same available resource for players of that calibre.

You keep repeating that its very meaningful, but I don't think you're making much of argument about why its meaningful.

 

[AFC979810]

I'm not really sure that's the same thing. That we wanted to be into big fish doesn't prove that we had the same interest in far smaller ones, or the same available resource for players of that calibre.

You keep repeating that its very meaningful, but I don't think you're making much of argument about why its meaningful.

Why its meaningful? Its meaningful because in our 33 year history we have only attracted 8 best 22 players from other clubs (I quoted 7 earlier but forgot Gibbs). 3 out of the 8 have come in the past 3 years. Thats very meaningful.

Dawson ended up 2nd in our 2022 B&F and won the B&F in his 2nd year as Captain. Rankine came 4th in his first year at the club. How is the addition of these two players anything but meaningful?

How can it not be meaningful that we have stolen 3 players from other clubs in a 3 year period when in the first 30 years as a club we only poached 5 (1 every 6 years). Its a stark difference.

You tried to say its not very meaningful because we had additional resources because we have been down so long. Thats a bullshit argument. Lack of resources is never an issue with recruiting players - look at all the top teams that are able to recruit stars.

The recruitment of Dawson, Rankine and Cumming is one of the only positives our club has had over the past 7 years.