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

[Kane McGoodwin]

Oh come on Kane, the injuries absolutely didn't help though. Ignoring them is disingenuous.

Oh come on Jenny, the crap game plan was the MAIN reason our season was cooked in the 1st month.

Suggesting otherwise is sticking your head in the sand!

Feel free to list all out injuries in the 1st month & compare to other clubs who also had injuries.

It's this reinventing the truth that doesn't help us fix issues going forward.

Why do you think the club brought in Davis?

 

[GROTTO]

We cooked our season in the 1st month thanks to a change to a crazy slow moving defensive game plan... not because of injuries.

We kicked just 31 goals in those first 4 games of the 2024 season.

That turned on its head in Game 5 when we kicked 16 goals vs Carlton and won.

 

[GROTTO]

100% agree he's gone if we don't make the finals.

But there's no way we don't make the finals with Davis curbing Nicks idiocy, so the club won't get rid of Nicks whilst we bumble along in the bottom half of the top 8.

It's very easy to see us having Nicks in charge for over 10 years.

I dont think even just making Finals in 2025 should be the pass mark either, it should be about how we win games and the how the players under Nicks improve from 2024.

Our draw is soft enough for us to make Finals in 2025.

There are few decent experienced Premiership coaches on the sidelines we really need to consider in coaching our Club in 2026.

 

[Cromulant]

Simple question, does anyone supporting this trip think Nicks in 5 years has shown a history of good judgement? Of making sound decisions?

Do you think an overseas trip will fix this fundamental flaw?

Yes I do.

I'm no Nicks fan at all, but I'm not begrudging of a bloke trying to make improvements.

Nor should you.

 

[rabidcrow]

Oh come on Jenny, the crap game plan was the MAIN reason our season was cooked in the 1st month.

Suggesting otherwise is sticking your head in the sand!

Feel free to list all out injuries in the 1st month & compare to other clubs who also had injuries.

It's this reinventing the truth that doesn't help us fix issues going forward.

Why do you think the club brought in Davis?

2024 was a full club failure. Not just Nicks. We got ahead of ourselves after big improvement in 2023. They assumed finals were fair accompli. Just needed to fix our defensive holes and we would be flying.

Totally stuffed the off season

Lose Rahilly, no genuine replacement

Let McAdam and Doedee go - no experience bought in to replace them (given they were still in our best 25 players

Started without Murray Schoenberg and Jones - all coming off serious injury and all best 25 at the time

Lose Thilthorpe pre season

Tex’s back at the start of the year

Yes the defensive “improvements” wrecked our great scoring capacity (Voss is on record doing a similar thing in 2023) and as we adjusted and got our game plan moving again we lost Milera, Pedlar,Worrell etc for significant periods


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Amacca 23]

We cooked our season in the 1st month thanks to a change to a crazy slow moving defensive game plan... not because of injuries.

Stop reinventing the truth as it doesn't help us going forward.

Clearly the club know Nicks isn't good at coaching & have brought in Davis to takeover much of his duties & sent Nicks off to study. The key issue is it took the club 5 years to realise he is still a rookie coach after 5 years...

The truth its a fact but hey doesnt fit your narrative does it ?

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[George Kramer]

Yes I do.

I'm no Nicks fan at all, but I'm not begrudging of a bloke trying to make improvements.

Nor should you.

Im begrudging on us wasting money on a bloke who is a dud, I’d see how he goes next year first to see if he’s going to be our ongoing coach.

You honestly think a Harvard course and seeing some clubs is going to stop him making stupid decisions, seriously? Gameplan, sub, selection?

And you think he’s our next premiership coach?

 

[tinman]

Yes I do.

I'm no Nicks fan at all, but I'm not begrudging of a bloke trying to make improvements.

Nor should you.

That’s not the point though. Do you think Murphy can have a great preseason and come out and dominate games in 2025? He is also a bloke trying his absolute best. He just doesn’t have the tools.

Nicks is the same. I absolutely hope that Nicks can become a better coach and we are successful, but I think it’s far more likely that we get into 6th or 8th, that’s seen as a win, and we extend him. And I’m not sure that going to help us win a premiership. We’ll end up like Port with Hinkley.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

The truth its a fact but hey doesnt fit your narrative does it ?

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app

The club admitted they got the game plan wrong.

I notice how you failed to list all our injuries in the 1st month compared to other clubs. We were not ravaged & it's disingenuous to suggest it was the major reason for our performance.

 

[Kane McGoodwin]

Im begrudging on us wasting money on a bloke who is a dud, I’d see how he goes next year first to see if he’s going to be our ongoing coach.

You honestly think a Harvard course and seeing some clubs is going to stop him making stupid decisions, seriously? Gameplan, sub, selection?

And you think he’s our next premiership coach?

Can't help stupid... except getting someone else to do their job.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I want him gone and replace him with someone who can coach. No overseas junket is going to make him better when you’ve got shit judgement and that’s his issue.

So when we eventually sack him do you think it will be money well spent? Or have you swallowed what the club has said and that he’s our next premiership coach?

It's a shame our press are so pissweak

I'd just like to know if internally we are asking ourselves some difficult questions

Eg about introducing a defence-first game plan last off season

And even some absolutely simple questions

Eg what was the thinking behind going with four tall forwards in a wet night game?

Why was Smith promoted after a putrid game as sub, replacing Nankervis who was in the best players?

Why was Soligo subbed off at 3/4 time in a game he was til that point BOG?

Why did Curtin go from full back, then half back, then centre square mid, then half forward in about an 8 week stretch?

Who at the club eyeballs Nicks and the coaching group and delivers some home truths?

 

[Scorpus]

I dont think even just making Finals in 2025 should be the pass mark either, it should be about how we win games and the how the players under Nicks improve from 2024.

Our draw is soft enough for us to make Finals in 2025.

There are few decent experienced Premiership coaches on the sidelines we really need to consider in coaching our Club in 2026.

Agreed. We don't want to be sitting 10th heading into the final round, and fall into finals because we beat North in round 24 while a couple of other clubs lose. That is not showing good progress.

 

[George Kramer]

That’s not the point though. Do you think Murphy can have a great preseason and come out and dominate games in 2025? He is also a bloke trying his absolute best. He just doesn’t have the tools.

Nicks is the same. I absolutely hope that Nicks can become a better coach and we are successful, but I think it’s far more likely that we get into 6th or 8th, that’s seen as a win, and we extend him. And I’m not sure that going to help us win a premiership. We’ll end up like Port with Hinkley.

Exactly!!

 

[crows dude]

The man is our coach for the next two years. Thats the cold hard truth. I’d rather they invest in him now than let him rot and **** up another season. If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we always got. So, the choice is help him get better which in turn should help us get better. OR, do nothing and waste another season.

Pitty Sando didn’t get the same treatment after Baileys death

 

[Scorpus]

I would only re-sign Nicks if he makes finals in both seasons and finishes top 4 in at least one of them

 

[George Kramer]

It's a shame our press are so pissweak

I'd just like to know if internally we are asking ourselves some difficult questions

Eg about introducing a defence-first game plan last off season

And even some absolutely simple questions

Eg what was the thinking behind going with four tall forwards in a wet night game?

Why was Smith promoted after a putrid game as sub, replacing Nankervis who was in the best players?

Why was Soligo subbed off at 3/4 time in a game he was til that point BOG?

Why did Curtin go from full back, then half back, then centre square mid, then half forward in about an 8 week stretch?

Who at the club eyeballs Nicks and the coaching group and delivers some home truths?

The sad part that’s not even the end of the list:

Pedlar on Stewart and then gave up “he’s too good” a defence he’s wheeled out a few times, few weeks later McEntee beats Stewart again.

Dowling and Taylor aren’t ready, have stuff to work on, late injuries and what do you know, bang they are ready and belong

Getting Smith to his trigger

Not taking any ownership over the season and instead blaming the players and then criticises critics.

The issue is it’s an ongoing issue:

Making an injured Lynch sub

Playing Matt Crouch on the wing

Going in short in defence numerous times against tall forward lines.

Played a cooked Sloane over Pedlar against Sydney.

The bloke just dumb and makes dumb decisions. No Harvard course or club tours is going to fix what’s innately wrong with him, which is he’s just has poor judgement.

 

[Carmo]

Oh come on Jenny, the crap game plan was the MAIN reason our season was cooked in the 1st month.

Suggesting otherwise is sticking your head in the sand!

Feel free to list all out injuries in the 1st month & compare to other clubs who also had injuries.

It's this reinventing the truth that doesn't help us fix issues going forward.

Why do you think the club brought in Davis?

Was saving this for my season review but might as well roll it out now.


Our backline experience first four rounds of 24.
Games in brackets, might be a bit inaccurate, should be within a game or two of being correct.
Especially look at the KPD experience. This is early days GWS and GC levels of experience.
Even beyond Rd 4 was pretty bad.


Worrell (10) Butts (60) Smith (247)
Milera (96) Borlase (4) Michalanney (22)

Worrell (11)Butts (61)Smith (248)
Milera (97) Keane (10) Michalanney (23)

Worrell (12) Borlase (5) Smith (249)
Hinge (43) Keane (11)Michalanney (24)

Worrell(13)/ Nank (4) Butts (62) Smith (250)
Parnell (16) Keane (12) Michalanney (25)

Have to say Rd 3's my favourite, with 5 and 11 game key defenders and Michalanney who's played one season is the 3rd most experienced defender we have. Didn't we go really, really bad that game, wonder why?

But yer, it was all gameplan and nothing to do with personnel and their experience.

 

[George Kramer]

Was saving this for my season review but might as well roll it out now.


Our backline experience first four rounds of 24.
Games in brackets, might be a bit inaccurate, should be within a game or two of being correct.
Especially look at the KPD experience. This is early days GWS and GC levels of experience.
Even beyond Rd 4 was pretty bad.


Worrell (10) Butts (60) Smith (247)
Milera (96) Borlase (4) Michalanney (22)

Worrell (11)Butts (61)Smith (248)
Milera (97) Keane (10) Michalanney (23)

Worrell (12) Borlase (5) Smith (249)
Hinge (43) Keane (11)Michalanney (24)

Worrell(13)/ Nank (4) Butts (62) Smith (250)
Parnell (16) Keane (12) Michalanney (25)

Have to say Rd 3's my favourite, with 5 and 11 game key defenders and Michalanney who's played one season is the 3rd most experienced defender we have. Didn't we go really, really bad that game, wonder why?

But yer, it was all gameplan and nothing to do with personnel and their experience.

Gees you’d expect with this lack of experience we would have been scored against heaps right? Did we? How did we compare to points against in 2023? I think you can tell by the tone of my questions I know the answer and it doesn’t bode well for your excuses.

We went 0-4 because we played a slow gameplan and couldn’t score, now compare our scoring. Actually don’t bother, we went from no 1 to worst in the comp.

Now rd 5 he releases the shackles, we beat a finalist in Carlton kicking a big score, then close loss against Essendon, thump North, beat Port and draw against the 2024 premiers.

All because we played a more attacking game. Thilthorpe was still missing.

So use the poxy excuse of early injuries and ignore the fact our coach fundamentally changed our game plan, so much so his no 1 fan WaynesWorld19 said he went rogue bonkers.

 

[WaynesWorld19]

The club admitted they got the game plan wrong.

I notice how you failed to list all our injuries in the 1st month compared to other clubs. We were not ravaged & it's disingenuous to suggest it was the major reason for our performance.

Ok ....so Thilthorpe, Milera, Pedlar & Murray out ....Tex out in game 1, meaning we only had Fogarty as a KPF in the first game

So ... 2 x KPP missing

You'll say Milera wasn't a loss ....however the loss of run off HB was crucial & is crucial in todays game .....particularly with Smith falling off the perch
Milera out forced us to play an out of form Smith

There's no coincidence that Wil Day returning in R7 had a bearing on the HAW midfield mix ..



You have a narrative which is devoid of any rationale ....but biased towards the outcome you desire
No objective person has a predefined bias on a person, then ignores all other influencing factors

All AFL Teams are so close nowadays .....all teams have injuries every year, that I agree with ....but it's injuries to which personnel which unbalances a side .....and in our case, as one of the youngest lists last year, exposed our inexperience and in Burgess case a player not up to league footy

You won't agree with any logical argument .....but take COLL, who I said could miss the 8, when they were perched inside the top 4 IIRC ......yes George Kramer I was right, after you ridiculed the statement

Kane, you'd obviously know why COLL went from Top 4 at the Byes, to missing the 8 ......please tell us your appraisel

Hell, you might not like my POV ...but at least I support it always with a full rationale

 

[George Kramer]

Ok ....so Thilthorpe, Milera, Pedlar & Murray out ....Tex out in game 1, meaning we only had Fogarty as a KPF in the first game

So ... 2 x KPP missing

You'll say Milera wasn't a loss ....however the loss of run off HB was crucial & is crucial in todays game .....particularly with Smith falling off the perch
Milera out forced us to play an out of form Smith

There's no coincidence that Wil Day returning in R7 had a bearing on the HAW midfield mix ..

View attachment 2179225

You have a narrative which is devoid of any rationale ....but biased towards the outcome you desire
No objective person has a predefined bias on a person, then ignores all other influencing factors

All AFL Teams are so close nowadays .....all teams have injuries every year, that I agree with ....but it's injuries to which personnel which unbalances a side .....and in our case, as one of the youngest lists last year, exposed our inexperience and in Burgess case a player not up to league footy

You won't agree with any logical argument .....but take COLL, who I said could miss the 8, when they were perched inside the top 4 IIRC ......yes George Kramer I was right, after you ridiculed the statement

Kane, you'd obviously know why COLL went from Top 4 at the Byes, to missing the 8 ......please tell us your appraisel

Hell, you might not like my POV ...but at least I support it always with a full rationale

Collingwood started the year in party mode, it took them awhile to get up and running.

You were also right when you said Nicks went rogue bonkers, why didn’t you include that in your injuries excuse analysis of our early season form?

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Gees you’d expect with this lack of experience we would have been scored against heaps right? Did we? How did we compare to points against in 2023? I think you can tell by the tone of my questions I know the answer and it doesn’t bode well for your excuses.

We went 0-4 because we played a slow gameplan and couldn’t score, now compare our scoring. Actually don’t bother, we went from no 1 to worst in the comp.

Now rd 5 he releases the shackles, we beat a finalist in Carlton kicking a big score, then close loss against Essendon, thump North, beat Port and draw against the 2024 premiers.

All because we played a more attacking game. Thilthorpe was still missing.

So use the poxy excuse of early injuries and ignore the fact our coach fundamentally changed our game plan, so much so his no 1 fan WaynesWorld19 said he went rogue bonkers.

You won't know this .....but all Clubs are changing gameplans every 6 weeks ....they change because other Clubs work them out, or they need to tweek their own gameplan .....that's all Clubs !

You think, we run with the same gameplan all year

Do you know why SYD started like a house on fire, unbeatable at the 2/3rds mark of the season .....and then went on a terrible loss run, which carried over into Finals

The expert commentators believed SYD gave opposition sides too big a look & they were worked out

AFL footy isn't SANFL footy .....it's a moving beast

 

[WaynesWorld19]

Collingwood started the year in party mode, it took them awhile to get up and running.

You were also right when you said Nicks went rogue bonkers, why didn’t you include that in your injuries excuse analysis of our early season form?

Hey, get you facts right .....COLL fell off the perch after the Byes

Nothing to do with taking a while to get up & running .....do some research

 

[kirky]

Its not like losing thilly , murray , butts ,worrell,rankine for 7 weeks plus had anything to do with not having a settled backline or team is it ? Take key players out of any side and they struggled , sydney lost 6 in a row with key players out

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Pretty sure we only had Thilly and Murray out for the first 4 weeks of the season when we went 0-4 and were the 17th best attacking team (only West Coast was slightly worse - by only 7 points by the way) as opposed to the no 1 attacking team in 2023.

 

[kirky]

You won't know this .....but all Clubs are changing gameplans every 6 weeks ....they change because other Clubs work them out, or they need to tweek their own gameplan .....that's all Clubs !

You think, we run with the same gameplan all year

Do you know why SYD started like a house on fire, unbeatable at the 2/3rds mark of the season .....and then went on a terrible loss run, which carried over into Finals

The expert commentators believed SYD gave opposition sides too big a look & they were worked out

AFL footy isn't SANFL footy .....it's a moving beast

Every 6 weeks?

Just picking numbers out of your arse again.

And it is called tweaking. So you reckon going from the no 1 attacking in 2023 to the 17th best side up to Round 4 is a good call and just a tweak. It literally screwed up our season together with having the numbnut twins in the side.

 

[kirky]

Oh come on Kane, the injuries absolutely didn't help though. Ignoring them is disingenuous.

This is interesting reading - didn’t seem to affect Brisbane, Hawthorn and Carlton.

There’s another AFL ladder, and the Blues are near the bottom

When it comes to dealing with injuries to key personnel this year, Adem Yze and Michael Voss have had it worse than any other AFL coach. Check out the rankings here.

www.theage.com.au

Will would like to know who is in our best 22.